Jean Baudrillard (, ; ; – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist and philosopher with an interest in

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as hyperreality. Baudrillard wrote about diverse subjects, including

consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...

, critique of economy,

social history Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history that looks at the lived experience of the past. Historians who write social history are called social historians. Social history came to prominence in the 1960s, spreading f ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

, Western

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

, and popular culture. Among his most well-known works are ''Seduction'' (1978), '' Simulacra and Simulation'' (1981), , and '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'' (1991). His work is frequently associated with

postmodernism Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, Culture, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting ...

and specifically

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

. Nevertheless, Baudrillard had also opposed , and had distanced himself from postmodernism.: "Asked about postmodernism, Baudrillard said: “I have nothing to do with it. I don’t know who came up with the term... But I have no faith in ‘postmodernism’ as an analytical term. When people say: ‘you are a postmodernist,’ I answer: “Well why not?’ The term simply avoids the issue itself.” He declared that he was a “nihilist, not a postmodernist.” (Baudrillard and Lie 2007:3–4)."; ; ;

Biography

Baudrillard was born in

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

, northeastern France, on 27 July 1929. His grandparents were farm workers and his father a gendarme. During high school (at the Lycée at Reims), he became aware of ' pataphysics, a

parody A parody is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satire, satirical or irony, ironic imitation. Often its subject is an Originality, original work or some aspect of it (theme/content, author, style, e ...

of the philosophy of science, via philosophy professor Emmanuel Peillet (1914-1973), which is said to be crucial for understanding Baudrillard's later thought.Francois L'Yvonnet, ed., Cahiers de l'Herne special volume on Baudrillard, Editions de l'Herne, 2004 He became the first of his family to attend university when he moved to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. There he studied German language and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

, which led him to begin teaching the subject at several different lycées, both Parisian and provincial, from 1960 until 1966.

Teaching career

While teaching, Baudrillard began to publish reviews of literature and translated the works of such authors as Peter Weiss,

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann. While teaching German, Baudrillard began to transfer to sociology, eventually completing and publishing in 1968 his doctoral thesis ''Le Système des Objets'' ('' The System of Objects'') under the dissertation committee of Henri Lefebvre,

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

, and

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

. Subsequently, he began teaching Sociology at the Paris X Nanterre, a university campus just outside Paris which would become heavily involved in the uprising of May 1968.''The Intelligence of Evil'', Berg (2005), Introduction and English translation by Chris Turner 2005 During this time, Baudrillard worked closely with Philosopher Humphrey De Battenburge, who described Baudrillard as a "visionary". At Nanterre he took up a position as ''Maître Assistant'' (Assistant Professor), then (Associate Professor), eventually becoming a professor after completing his accreditation, (''The Other by Himself''). In 1970, Baudrillard made the first of his many trips to the United States (

Aspen Aspen is a common name for certain tree species in the Populus sect. Populus, of the ''Populus'' (poplar) genus. Species These species are called aspens: * ''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, south of ''P. tremula'') * ''Populus da ...

, Colorado), and in 1973, the first of several trips to

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Japan. He was given his first camera in 1981 in Japan, which led to him becoming a photographer. In 1986, he moved to IRIS (Institut de Recherche et d'Information Socio-Économique) at the Université de Paris-IX Dauphine, where he spent the latter part of his teaching career. During this time he had begun to move away from sociology as a discipline (particularly in its "classical" form), and, after ceasing to teach , he rarely identified himself with any particular discipline, although he remained linked to academia. During the 1980s and 1990s his books had gained a wide audience, and in his last years he became, to an extent, an intellectual celebrity, being published often in the French- and popular press. He nonetheless continued supporting the Institut de Recherche sur l'Innovation Sociale at the

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

and was ''

Satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median kingdom, Median and Achaemenid Empire, Persian (Achaemenid) Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic period, Hellenistic empi ...

'' at the Collège de 'Pataphysique. Baudrillard taught at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and collaborated at the Canadian theory, culture, and technology review '' CTheory'', where he was abundantly cited. He also purportedly participated in the ''International Journal of Baudrillard Studies'' (as of 2022 hosted on

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

domain) from its inception in 2004 until his death. In 1999–2000, his photographs were exhibited at the Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris. In 2004, Baudrillard attended the major conference on his work, "Baudrillard and the Arts", at the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

, Germany.

Personal life

Grave of Jean BAUDRILLARD in Montparnasse Cemetery

Baudrillard enjoyed baroque music; a favorite composer was

Claudio Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string instrument, string player. A composer of both Secular music, secular and Church music, sacred music, and a pioneer ...

. He also favored rock music such as '' The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Baudrillard did his writing using "his old

typewriter A typewriter is a Machine, mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of Button (control), keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an i ...

, never at the computer". He has stated that a computer is not "merely a handier and more complex kind of typewriter", and with a typewriter he has a "physical relation to writing". Baudrillard was married twice. He and his first wife Lucile Baudrillard had two children, Gilles and Anne. Not much is known about their relationship, or why they separated. In 1970, while working as a professor at the University of Paris-Nanterre, 41-year-old Baudrillard met 25-year-old Marine Dupuis, who had just come back from a sailing trip around the world with her then-boyfriend. In 1994, more than 20 years later, Jean and Marine got married. Marine went on to be a journalist and media artistic director. Diagnosed with cancer in 2005, Baudrillard battled the disease for two years from his apartment on Rue Sainte-Beuve, Paris, dying at the age of 77. Marine Baudrillard curates ''Cool Memories'', an association of Jean Baudrillard's friends.

Key concepts

Baudrillard's published work emerged as part of a generation of French thinkers including

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...

, Jean-François Lyotard,

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

, Jacques Derrida, and

Jacques Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Sigmund Freud, Freud", Lacan gave The Seminars of Jacques Lacan, year ...

who all shared an interest in

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

, and he is often seen as a part of the post-structuralist philosophical school. James M. Russell in 2015 stated that "In common with many post-structuralists, his arguments consistently draw upon the notion that signification and meaning are both only understandable in terms of how particular words or 'signs' interrelate". Baudrillard thought, as do many post-structuralists, that meaning is brought about through ''systems'' of signs working together. Following on from the structuralist

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Ferdinand de Saussure, Baudrillard argued that meaning (''value'') is created through ''difference''—through what something is not (so "dog" means "dog" because it is not-"cat", not-"goat", not-"tree", etc.). In fact, he viewed meaning as near enough

self-referential Self-reference is a concept that involves referring to oneself or one's own attributes, characteristics, or actions. It can occur in language, logic, mathematics, philosophy, and other fields. In natural language, natural or formal languages, ...

: objects, images of objects, words and signs are situated in a web of meaning; one object's meaning is only understandable through its relation to the system of other objects; for instance, one thing's prestige relates to another's mundanity. From this starting point Baudrillard theorized broadly about human society based upon this kind of self-referentiality. His writing portrays societies always searching for a sense of meaning—or a "total" understanding of the world—that remains consistently elusive. In contrast to

Post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of Power (social and poli ...

(such as

), for whom the formations of knowledge emerge only as the result of relations of power, Baudrillard developed theories in which the excessive, fruitless search for total knowledge leads almost inevitably to a kind of delusion. In Baudrillard's view, the (human) subject may try to understand the (non-human) object, but because the object can only be understood according to what it signifies (and because the process of signification immediately involves a web of other signs from which it is distinguished) this never produces the desired results. The subject is, rather, ''seduced'' (in the original Latin sense: ) by the object. He argued therefore that, in the final analysis, a complete understanding of the minutiae of human life is impossible, and when people are seduced into thinking otherwise they become drawn toward a " simulated" version of reality, or, to use one of his

neologism In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

s, a state of " hyperreality". This is not to say that the world becomes unreal, but rather that the faster and more comprehensively societies begin to bring reality together into one supposedly coherent picture, the more insecure and unstable it looks and the more fearful societies become. Reality, in this sense, "dies out." Russell states that Baudrillard argues that "in our present 'global' society, technological communication has created an excessive proliferation of meaning. Because of this, meaning's self-referentiality has prompted, not a 'global village,' but a world where meaning has been obliterated" Accordingly, Baudrillard argued that the excess of signs and of meaning in late 20th century "global" society had caused (quite paradoxically) an effacement of reality. In this world neither liberal nor

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

utopias are any longer believed in. We live, he argued, not in a " global village", to use

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (, ; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media studies, media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba a ...

's phrase, but rather in a world that is ever more easily petrified by even the smallest event. Because the "global" world operates at the level of the exchange of signs and commodities, it becomes ever more blind to ''symbolic'' acts such as, for example, terrorism. In Baudrillard's work the symbolic realm (which he develops a perspective on through the anthropological work of Marcel Mauss and

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 8 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...

) is seen as quite distinct from that of signs and signification. Signs can be exchanged like commodities; symbols, on the other hand, operate quite differently: they are exchanged, like gifts, sometimes violently as a form of

potlatch A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scienc ...

. Baudrillard, particularly in his later work, saw the "global" society as without this "symbolic" element, and therefore symbolically (if not militarily) defenseless against acts such as the Rushdie Fatwa or, indeed, the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States and its military and economic establishment.

Value criticism

In his early books, such as '' The System of Objects'', ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'', and ', Baudrillard's main focus is upon consumerism, and how different objects are consumed in different ways. At this time Baudrillard's political outlook was loosely associated with

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

(and Situationism), but in these books he differed from

in one significant way. For Baudrillard, as for the situationists, it was consumption rather than production that was the main driver of capitalist society. Baudrillard came to this conclusion by criticising Marx's concept of "

use-value Use value () or value in use is a concept in classical political economy and Marxist economics. It refers to the tangible features of a Commodity (Marxism), commodity (a tradeable object) which can satisfy some human requirement, want or need, o ...

". Baudrillard thought that both Marx's and

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

's economic thought accepted the idea of genuine needs relating to genuine uses too easily and too simply. Baudrillard argued, drawing from

, that needs are constructed, rather than innate. He stressed that all purchases, because they always signify something ''socially'', have their fetishistic side. Objects always, drawing from

, "say something" about their users. And this was, for him, why consumption was and remains more important than production: because the "ideological genesis of needs" precedes the production of goods to meet those needs. He wrote that there are four ways of an object obtaining value. The four value-making processes are: # The functional value: an object's instrumental purpose (use value). Example: a pen writes; a refrigerator cools. # The exchange value: an object's economic value. Example: One pen may be worth three pencils, while one refrigerator may be worth the salary earned by three months of work. # The symbolic value: an object's value assigned by a subject ''in relation to another subject'' (i.e., between a giver and receiver). Example: a pen might symbolize a student's school graduation gift or a commencement speaker's gift; or a diamond may be a symbol of publicly declared marital love. # The sign value: an object's value within a ''system'' of objects. Example: a particular pen may, while having no added functional benefit, signify prestige relative to another pen; a diamond ring may have no function at all, but may suggest particular social values, such as taste or class. Baudrillard's earlier books were attempts to argue that the first two of these values are not simply associated, but are disrupted by the third and, particularly, the fourth. Later, Baudrillard rejected Marxism totally ('' The Mirror of Production'' and ''Symbolic Exchange and Death''). But the focus on the difference between sign value (which relates to commodity exchange) and symbolic value (which relates to Maussian gift exchange) remained in his work up until his death. Indeed, it came to play a more and more important role, particularly in his writings on world events.

''Simulacra and Simulation''

As Baudrillard developed his work throughout the 1980s, he moved from economic theory to mediation and

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large population segments. It utilizes various forms of media as technology has made the dissemination of information more efficient. Primary examples o ...

. Although retaining his interest in Saussurean

and the logic of symbolic exchange (as influenced by anthropologist Marcel Mauss), Baudrillard turned his attention to the work of

, developing ideas about how the nature of social relations is determined by the forms of communication that a society employs. In so doing, Baudrillard progressed beyond both Saussure's and

's formal semiology to consider the implications of a historically understood version of structural semiology. According to Kornelije Kvas, "Baudrillard rejects the structuralist principle of the equivalence of different forms of linguistic organization, the binary principle that contains oppositions such as: true-false, real-unreal, center-periphery. He denies any possibility of a (mimetic) duplication of reality; reality mediated through language becomes a game of signs. In his theoretical system all distinctions between the real and the fictional, between a copy and the original, disappear". Simulation, Baudrillard claims, is the current stage of the simulacrum: all is composed of references with no referents, a hyperreality. Baudrillard argues that this is part of a historical progression. In the Renaissance, the dominant simulacrum was in the form of the counterfeit, where people or objects appear to stand for a real referent that does not exist (for instance, royalty, nobility, holiness, etc.). With the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

, the dominant simulacrum becomes the product, which can be propagated on an endless production line. In current times, the dominant simulacrum is the model, which by its nature already stands for endless reproducibility, and is itself already reproduced.

The end of history and meaning

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, one of Baudrillard's most common themes was

historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity deno ...

, or, more specifically, how present-day societies use the notions of progress and modernity in their political choices. He argued, much like the political theorist Francis Fukuyama, that history had ended or "vanished" with the spread of

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

; but, unlike Fukuyama, Baudrillard averred that this end should not be understood as the culmination of history's progress, but as the collapse of the very ''idea'' of historical progress. For Baudrillard, the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

did not represent an ideological victory; rather, it signaled the disappearance of utopian visions shared between both the political Right and Left. Giving further evidence of his opposition toward

visions of global communism and liberal visions of global civil society, Baudrillard contended that the ends they hoped for had always been illusions; indeed, as ''The Illusion of the End'' argues, he thought the idea of an end itself was nothing more than a misguided dream: Within a society subject to and ruled by fast-paced electronic communication and global information networks the collapse of this façade was always going to be, he thought, inevitable. Employing a quasi-scientific vocabulary that attracted the ire of the physicist

Alan Sokal Alan David Sokal ( ; born January 24, 1955) is an American professor of mathematics at University College London and professor emeritus of physics at New York University. He works with statistical mechanics and combinatorics. Sokal is a critic o ...

, Baudrillard wrote that the speed society moved at had destabilized the linearity of history: "we have the

particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel electric charge, charged particles to very high speeds and energies to contain them in well-defined particle beam, beams. Small accelerators are used for fundamental ...

that has smashed the referential orbit of things once and for all." Russell stated that this "approach to history demonstrates Baudrillard's affinities with the

postmodern philosophy Postmodern philosophy is a philosophy, philosophical movement that arose in the second half of the 20th century as a critical response to assumptions allegedly present in Modernism#Origins, modernist philosophical ideas regarding culture, identit ...

of Jean-François Lyotard", who argued that in the late 20th century there was no longer any room for "

metanarrative In social theory, a metanarrative (also master narrative, or meta-narrative and grand narrative; or ) is an overarching narrative about smaller historical narratives, which offers a society legitimation through the anticipated completion of a (a ...

s". (The triumph of a coming communism being one such metanarrative.) But, in addition to simply lamenting this collapse of history, Baudrillard also went beyond Lyotard and attempted to analyse how the idea of positive progress was being employed in spite of the notion's declining validity. Baudrillard argued that although genuine belief in a universal endpoint of history, wherein all conflicts would find their resolution, had been deemed redundant, universality was still a notion used in world politics as an excuse for actions. Universal values which, according to him, no one any longer believed were universal and are still rhetorically employed to justify otherwise unjustifiable choices. The means, he wrote, are there even though the ends are no longer believed in, and are employed to hide the present's harsh realities (or, as he would have put it, unrealities). "In

the Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a European intellectual and philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained through rationalism and empirici ...

, universalization was viewed as unlimited growth and forward progress. Today, by contrast, universalization is expressed as a forward ''escape''." This involves the notion of "

escape velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for an object to escape from contact with or orbit of a primary body, assuming: * Ballistic trajectory – no other forces are acting on the object, such as ...

" as outlined in ''The Illusion of the End'', which in turn, results in the postmodern ''fallacy of escape velocity'' on which the postmodern mind and critical view cannot, by definition, ever truly break free from the all-encompassing "

" sphere of discourse.

Political commentary

On the Bosnian War

Baudrillard reacted to the West's indifference to the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

in writings, mostly in essays in his column for ''

Libération (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968 in France, May 1968. Initially positioned on the far left of Fr ...

''. More specifically, he expressed his view on Europe's unwillingness to respond to "aggression and genocide in Bosnia", in which "New Europe" revealed itself to be a "sham." He criticized the Western media and intellectuals for their passivity, and for taking the role of bystanders, engaging in ineffective, hypocritical and self-serving action, and the public for its inability to distinguish ''simulacra'' from real world happenings, in which real death and destruction in Bosnia seemed unreal. He was determined in his columns to openly name the perpetrators, Serbs, and call their actions in Bosnia aggression and genocide. Baudrillard heavily criticized

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

for directing a production of ''

Waiting for Godot ''Waiting for Godot'' ( or ) is a 1953 play by Irish writer and playwright Samuel Beckett, in which the two main characters, Vladimir (Waiting for Godot), Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), engage in a variety of discussions and encounters w ...

'' in war-torn Sarajevo during the siege.

On the Persian Gulf War

Baudrillard's provocative 1991 book, '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'',Baudrillard, Jean. 2004

991 Year 991 (Roman numerals, CMXCI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events * March 1: In Rouen, Pope John XV ratifies the first Peace and Truce of God, Truce of God, between Æthelred the Unready and Richard I o ...

'' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place''. raised his public profile as an academic and political commentator. He argued that the first

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

was the inverse of the Clausewitzian formula: not "the continuation of politics by other means", but "the continuation of the absence of politics by other means." Accordingly,

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

was not fighting the

Coalition A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces. Formation According to ''A G ...

, but using the lives of his soldiers as a form of sacrifice to preserve his power. The Coalition fighting the Iraqi military was merely dropping 10,000 tonnes of bombs daily, as if proving to themselves that there was an enemy to fight. So, too, were the Western media complicit, presenting the war in real time, by recycling images of war to propagate the notion that the U.S.-led Coalition and the Iraqi government were actually fighting, but, such was not the case. Saddam Hussein did not use his military capacity (the Iraqi Air Force). His power was not weakened, evinced by his easy suppression of the 1991 internal uprisings that followed afterwards. Over all, little had changed. Saddam remained undefeated, the "victors" were not victorious, and thus there was no war—i.e., the Gulf War did not occur. The book was originally a series of articles in the British newspaper ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and the French newspaper ''

'', published in three parts: "The Gulf War Will Not Take Place," published during the American military and rhetorical buildup; "The Gulf War Is Not Taking Place," published during military action; and "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place" published afterwards. Some critics, like Christopher Norris accused Baudrillard of instant revisionism; a denial of the physical action of the conflict (which was related to his denial of reality in general). Consequently, Baudrillard was accused of lazy amoralism, cynical scepticism, and Berkelian

subjective idealism Subjective idealism, or empirical idealism or immaterialism, is a form of philosophical monism that holds that only minds and mental contents exist. It entails and is generally identified or associated with immaterialism, the doctrine that m ...

. Sympathetic commentators such as William Merrin, in his book ''Baudrillard and the Media'', have argued that Baudrillard was more concerned with the West's technological and political dominance and the globalization of its commercial interests, and what that means for the present possibility of war. Merrin argued that Baudrillard was not denying that something had happened, but merely questioning whether that something was in fact war or a bilateral "atrocity masquerading as a war". Merrin viewed the accusations of amorality as redundant and based on a misreading. In Baudrillard's own words:

On the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001

In his essay, "The Spirit of Terrorism", Baudrillard characterises the terrorist attacks of

11 September 2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

on the World Trade Center in New York City as the "absolute event".Baudrillard, Jean. 0012010.
The Spirit of Terrorism
" translated by R. Bloul. European Graduate School. . Baudrillard contrasts the "absolute event" of 11 September 2001 with "global events", such as the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. The essay culminates in Baudrillard regarding the U.S.-led

as a " non-event", or an "event that did not happen". Seeking to understand them as a reaction to the technological and political expansion of capitalist globalization, rather than as a war of religiously based or warfare, he described the absolute event and its consequences as follows: In accordance with his theory of society, Baudrillard portrayed the attacks as a symbolic reaction to the inexorable rise of a world based on commodity exchange. Baudrillard's stance on the 11 September 2001 attacks was criticised on two counts.

Richard Wolin Richard Wolin (; born 1952) is an American intellectual historian who writes on 20th century European philosophy, particularly German philosopher Martin Heidegger and the group of thinkers known collectively as the Frankfurt School. Life Wolin ...

(in ''The Seduction of Unreason'') forcefully accused Baudrillard and

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distin ...

of all but celebrating the terrorist attacks, essentially claiming that the United States received what it deserved. Žižek, however, countered that accusation to Wolin's analysis as a form of intellectual barbarism in the journal ''

Critical Inquiry ''Critical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Chicago). While the topics and historica ...

'', saying that Wolin failed to see the difference between fantasising about an event and stating that one is deserving of that event. Merrin (in ''Baudrillard and the Media'') argued that Baudrillard's position affords the terrorists a type of moral superiority. In the journal ''

Economy and Society ''Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology'' (1921; ; or simply ''Economy and Society'') is a book by political economist and sociologist Max Weber, published posthumously in Germany by his wife Marianne. Alongside ''The Prot ...

'', Merrin further noted that Baudrillard gives the symbolic facets of society unfair privilege above semiotic concerns. Second, authors questioned whether the attacks were unavoidable.

Bruno Latour Bruno Latour (; ; 22 June 1947 – 9 October 2022) was a French philosopher, anthropologist and sociologist.Wheeler, Will. ''Bruno Latour: Documenting Human and Nonhuman Associations'' Critical Theory for Library and Information Science. Librari ...

, in ''Critical Inquiry,'' argued that Baudrillard believed that their destruction was forced by the society that created them, alluding to the notion that the Towers were "brought down by their own weight." In Latour's view, this was because Baudrillard conceived only of society in terms of a symbolic and semiotic dualism.

Debate with Jacques Derrida

19 February 2003, with the 2003 invasion of Iraq impending, moderated a debate entitled ''"Pourquoi La Guerre Aujourd'hui?"'' between Baudrillard and

Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...

, co-hosted by ''Major's Institute for Advanced Studies in Psychoanalysis'' and '' Le Monde Diplomatique''. The debate discussed the relation between terrorist attacks and the invasion. "Where Baudrillard situates 9/11 as the primary motivating force" behind the Iraq War, whereas "Derrida argues that the Iraq War was planned long before 9/11, and that 9/11 plays a secondary role".

''The Agony of Power''

During 2005, Baudrillard wrote three short pieces and gave a brief magazine interview, all treating similar ideas; following his death in 2007, the four pieces were collected and published posthumously as ''The Agony of Power'', a polemic against power itself. The first piece, "From Domination to Hegemony", contrasts its two subjects, modes of power; domination stands for historical, traditional power relations, while hegemony stands for modern, more sophisticated power relations as realized by states and businesses. Baudrillard decried the "cynicism" with which contemporary businesses openly state their

business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...

s. For example, he cited French television channel

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

executive Patrick Le Lay who stated that his business' job was "to help

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

sell its products." Baudrillard lamented that such honesty pre-empted and thus robbed the Left of its traditional role of critiquing governments and businesses: "In fact, Le Lay takes away the only power we had left. He steals our denunciation."Baudrillard, Jean.

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

2010. ''The Agony of Power'', translated by A. Hodges, Semiotext(e) Intervention Series 6. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e). . Consequently, Baudrillard stated that "power itself must be abolished—and not solely in the refusal to be dominated ..but also, just as violently, in the refusal to dominate." The latter pieces included further analysis of the 11 September terrorist attacks, using the metaphor of the Native American

to describe both American and Muslim societies, specifically the American state versus the hijackers. In the piece's context, "potlatch" referred not to the gift-giving aspect of the ritual, but rather its wealth-destroying aspect: "The terrorists' potlatch against the West is their own death. Our potlatch is indignity, immodesty, obscenity, degradation and abjection." This criticism of the West carried notes of Baudrillard's simulacrum, the above cynicism of business, and contrast between Muslim and Western societies:

We he Westthrow this indifference and
abjection In critical theory, abjection is the state of being cast off and separated from norms and rules, especially on the scale of society and morality. The term has been explored in post-structuralism as that which inherently disturbs conventional ident ...
at others like a challenge: the challenge to defile themselves in return, to deny their values, to strip naked, confess, admit—to respond to a nihilism equal to our own.

Reception

Jean-François Lyotard's 1974 '' Économie Libidinale'' criticised Baudrillard's work. Lotringer notes that

, "otherwise known for his generosity", "made it known around Paris" that he saw Baudrillard as "the shame of the profession" after Baudrillard published his views on Foucault's works.''Forget Foucault'' SEMIOTEXT(E) FOREIGN AGENTS SERIES , published in 1977 as ''Oublier Foucault''. Translated by Nicole Dufresne Sontag, responding to Baudrillard's comments on her reactions to the Bosnian war, described him as "ignorant and cynical" and "a political idiot". James M. Russell in 2015 wrote that "The most severe" of Baudrillard's "critics accuse him of being a purveyor of a form of reality-denying irrationalism". One of Baudrillard's editors, critical theory professor

Mark Poster Mark Poster (July 5, 1941 – October 10, 2012) was Professor Emeritus of History and Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine, where he also taught in the Critical Theory Emphasis. He was pivotal to "bringing French critical theory to the U.S. ...

, remarked: But Poster still argued for his contemporary relevance; he also attempted to refute the most extreme of Baudrillard's critics: Christopher Norris's ''Uncritical Theory: Postmodernism, Intellectuals and the Gulf War'', to Russell, "seeks to reject his media theory and position on "the real" out of hand". Frankfurt school critical theorist Douglas Kellner's ''Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond'' Kellner, Douglas''. Jean Baudrillard: From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond''. .—seeks rather to analyse Baudrillard's relation to postmodernism (a concept with which Baudrillard has had a continued, if uneasy and rarely explicit, relationship) and to present a Marxist counter. Regarding the former, William Merrin (discussed above) published more than one denunciation of Norris' position. The latter Baudrillard himself characterised as reductive. Kellner stated that "it is difficult to decide whether Baudrillard is best read as science fiction and pataphysics, or as philosophy, social theory, and cultural metaphysics, and whether his post-1970s work should be read under the sign of truth or fiction." To Kellner, Baudrillard during and after the 1970s "falls prey to a

technological determinism Technological determinism is a reductionist theory in assuming that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. The term is ...

and semiological

idealism Idealism in philosophy, also known as philosophical realism or metaphysical idealism, is the set of metaphysics, metaphysical perspectives asserting that, most fundamentally, reality is equivalent to mind, Spirit (vital essence), spirit, or ...

which posits an autonomous technology". In 1991, writing for ''

Science Fiction Studies ''Science Fiction Studies'' (''SFS'') is an academic journal founded in 1973 by R. D. Mullen. The journal is published three times per year at DePauw University. As Science fiction studies, the name implies, the journal publishes articles and ...

'', Vivian Sobchack alleged that "The man audrillardis really dangerous" for lacking "moral gaze", while J. G. Ballard (whose novel Baudrillard had written on) commented in his ''Response to an Invitation to Respond'' excluded Baudrillard from his criticism towards the journal and its endeavour at large. Sara Ahmed in 1996 remarked that Baudrillard's was culpable of "celebrating ..is precisely women's status as signs and commodities circulated by and for male spectators and consumers". Kellner described as an "affront to feminism". Art critic

Adrian Searle Adrian Searle (born 1953 in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire) is an art critic for ''The Guardian'', and has been writing for the paper since 1996. Previously he was a painter. Life and career Searle studied at the St Albans School of Art (197 ...

in 1998 described Baudrillard's photography as "wistful, elegiac and oddly haunting", like " movie stills of unregarded moments". One of the most commonly cited critiques of Baudrillard was written in 2013 from academic writer Andrew Robinson o
Ceasefire magazine
who declares Baudrillard's work as both

sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...

and

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

, while also containing ableist undertones, stating: "Many of his audrillard'sformulations are inadvertently sexist and racist. There are also times when Baudrillard comes across as ableist in his critiques of the therapeutic." Additionally, Robison critiques the philosophy of Baudrillard as exaggeratory. Although Robinson provides a critique of Baudrillard's theory, he also describes the value of said theory. Specifically, Robinson states, "Baudrillard’s theory also helps to explain why his appropriation by leftists has been strategically unsuccessful." Robinson also describes the value of the simulacra in relation to media critique, especially in the US media.

Tone and attitude

Mark Fisher Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Golds ...

pointed out that Baudrillard "is condemned, sometimes lionised, as the melancholic observer of a departed reality", asserting that Baudrillard "was certainly melancholic". Poster stated that "As the politics of the sixties receded so did Baudrillard's radicalism: from a position of firm leftism he gradually moved to one of bleak fatalism", a view Felix Guattari echoed. Richard G. Smith, David B. Clarke and Marcus A. Doel instead consider Baudrillard "an extreme optimist". In an exchange between critical theorist

McKenzie Wark McKenzie Wark (born 1961) is an Australian-born writer and scholar. Wark is known for her writings on media theory, critical theory, new media, and the Situationist International. Her best known works are '' A Hacker Manifesto'' and ''Gamer The ...

and EGS professor

Geert Lovink Geert Lovink (born 1959, Amsterdam) is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and ope ...

, Wark remarked of Baudrillard that "Everything he wrote was marked by a radical sadness and yet invariably expressed in the happiest of forms." Baudrillard himself stated "we have to fight against charges of unreality, lack of responsibility, nihilism, and despair". Chris Turner's English translation of Baudrillard's ''Cool Memories: 1980–1985'' writes, "I accuse myself of ..being profoundly carnal and melancholy ..AMEN ". David Macey saw "extraordinary arrogance" in Baudrillard's take on Foucault. Sontag found Baudrillard 'condescending'. Russell wrote that "Baudrillard's writing, and his uncompromising – even arrogant – stance, have led to fierce criticism which in contemporary social scholarship can only be compared to the criticism received by Jacques Lacan."

Influence and legacy

Native American

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

writer

Gerald Vizenor Gerald Robert Vizenor (born 1934) is an American writer and scholar, and an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation. Vizenor also taught for many years at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was D ...

made extensive use of Baudrillard's concepts of simulation in his critical work. American artist Joey Skaggs has been noted for creating media hoaxes that exemplify Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality. By orchestrating fictitious events—such as the ''Cathouse for Dogs'' and ''Portofess''—which were reported as real by major news outlets, Skaggs constructs simulations that supplant actual truths, thereby exposing the media's role in manufacturing reality.

In popular culture

The Wachowskis Lana Wachowski (born Larry Wachowski, June 21, 1965) and Lilly Wachowski (born Andy Wachowski, December 29, 1967) are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women. Together known as the Wacho ...

said that Baudrillard influenced ''

The Matrix ''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the The Matrix (franchise), ''Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ca ...

'' (1999), and Neo hides money and disks containing information in ''Simulacra and Simulation''.

Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist, who was raised in Montreal, Canada. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed nonfiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 19 ...

wondered whether Baudrillard, who had not embraced the movie, was "thinking of suing for a screen credit," but Baudrillard himself disclaimed any connection to ''The Matrix'', calling it at best a misreading of his ideas. Some reviewers have noted that

Charlie Kaufman Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. Having first come to prominence for writing ''Being John Malkovich'' (1999), ''Adaptation (film), Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sun ...

's film ''

Synecdoche, New York ''Synecdoche, New York'' ( ) is a 2008 American postmodern psychological drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman in his directorial debut. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden Cotard, a theater director whose attempt to ...

'' seems inspired by Baudrillard's ''Simulacra and Simulation''. The album '' Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'' by rock band

Deerhunter Deerhunter is an American indie rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2001. The band currently consists of Bradford Cox (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Moses Archuleta (drums, electronics, sound treatments), Lockett Pundt (guitar, vocals, ...

was influenced by Baudrillard's essay of the same name.

In technology

Cody Wilson Cody Rutledge Wilson (born January 31, 1988) is an American Right to keep and bear arms in the United States, gun rights activist and Crypto-anarchism, crypto-anarchist. He started Defense Distributed, a nonprofit organization, non-profit organ ...

, the developer of the first 3D-printed gun, credits the work of Baudrillard as his theoretical inspiration, and claims him as his "master."

Bibliography

Books

* 1968. '' The System of Objects'' (English: 1996) * 1970. ' (English: 1998) * 1972. ''For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign'' (English: 1981) * 1973. '' The Mirror of Production'' (English: 1975) * 1976. ''Symbolic Exchange and Death'' (English: 1993) * 1977. ''Forget Foucault'' (English: 1987) * 1978. '' In the Shadow of the Silent Majorities'' (English: 1983) * 1979. ''Seduction'' (English: 1990) * 1981. '' Simulacra and Simulation'' (English: 1983) * 1983. ''Fatal Strategies'' (English: 1990) * 1983. ''Simulations'' (first published in English) * 1985. ''The Divine Left: A Chronicle of the Years 1977–1984'' (English: 1985) * 1986. ''America'' (English: 1988) * 1987. ''Cool Memories 1980–1985'' (English: 1989) * 1987. ''The Ecstasy of Communication'' (English: 1988) * 1990. ''The Transparency of Evil'' (English: 1993) * 1990. ''Cool Memories II 1987–1990'' (English: 1996) * 1991. '' The Gulf War Did Not Take Place'' (English: 1995) * 1992. ''The Illusion of the End'' (English: 1994) * 1995. ''The Perfect Crime'' (English: 1996) * 1995. ''Fragments: Cool Memories III 1990–1995'' (English: 1997) * 1997. ''Paroxysm: Interviews with Philippe Petit'' (English: 1998) * 1997. ''Screened Out'' (English: 2002) * 1999. ''Impossible Exchange'' (English: 2001) * 2000. ''Passwords'' (English: 2003) * 2000. '' The Singular Objects of Architecture'' (English: 2002) * 2000. ''The Vital Illusion'' (first published in English) * 2000. ''Cool Memories IV 1995–2000'' (English: 2003) * 2000. ''The Conspiracy of Art'' (English: 2005) * 2001. ''Fragments (Interviews with François L'Yvonnet)'' (English: 2003) * 2001. ''Telemorphosis'' (English: 2011) * 2002. ''The Spirit of Terrorism and Requiem for the Twin Towers'' (English: 2002) * 2004. ''The Intelligence of Evil or the Lucidity Pact'' (English: 2005) * 2005. ''Cool Memories V 2000–2004'' (English: 2006) * 2005. ''Exiles from Dialogue'' (with Enrique Valiente Noailles) (English: 2007) * 2006. ''Utopia Deferred: Writings for Utopie (1967–1978)'' (first published in English) * 2007. ''Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared?'' (English: 2009) * 2008. ''Radical Alterity'' (with Marc Guillaume) (first published in English) * 2008. ''Carnival and Cannibal, or the Play of Global Antagonisms'' (English: 2010) * 2010. ''The Agony of Power'' (first published in English)

Articles and essays

* * * 1996. "No Pity for Sarajevo; The West's Serbianization; When the West Stands In for the Dead." Pp. 79–89 in ''This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia''. NYU Press. . * 2001. "The Spirit of Terrorism." ''

Telos Telos (; ) is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of human art. ''Telos'' is the root of the modern term teleology, the study of purposiveness or of objects with a view to their aims, ...

'' 121(Fall):134–42. * 2005. "Divine Europe." ''Telos'' 131(Summer):188–90. * 2006. "The Pyres of Autumn." ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

'' 2(37).
The violence of images, violence against the image.
* ''Radical Thought'' ( CTheory) *

*

Interviews

* Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Jocks, Heinz-Norbert: ''Die Fotografie und die Dinge. Ein Gespräch mit Jean Baudrillard.'' In: ''Kunstforum International.'', No: 172, ''Das Ende der Fotografie.'' Editor: Heinz-Norbert Jocks, 2004, p. 70–83. * Smith, Richard G., David B. Clarke, eds. 2015. ''Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance: Uncollected Interviews''. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. . * Smith, Richard G., David B. Clarke, eds. 2017. ''Jean Baudrillard: The Disappearance of Culture: Uncollected Interviews''. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. .

Audio CDs

* 1997. ''Die Illusion des Endes – Das Ende der Illusion'' 8 minutes + booklet Jean Baudrillard & Boris Groys. Cologne: supposé. * 2006. ''Die Macht der Verführung'', 5 minutes Cologne: supposé. .

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Jean Baudrillard Biography
Archived from th
original
on 20 December 2009. Faculty page at European Graduate School (biography, bibliography, photos and videos). * *
Jean Baudrillard (1981; translated 1994 by Sheila Glaser), Simulacra and Simulation
archived fro
the original
on 21 May 2013.
Baudrillard; Cultura, Simulacro y régimen de mortandad en el Sistema de los Objetos , EIKASIA
PDF (in Spanish) Adolfo Vásquez Rocca * *
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies
'' Retrieved 9 March 2022 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baudrillard, Jean 1929 births 2007 deaths People from Reims University of Paris alumni Academic staff of European Graduate School 20th-century French philosophers 21st-century French philosophers French philosophers of technology French sociologists Philosophers of nihilism Pataphysicians Postmodern theory Postmodern writers Critical theorists Hyperreality theorists Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery Writers about globalization French male writers Media critics Anti-consumerists