Key Contemporary Thinkers Jean Baudrillard From Marxism to Postmodernism and Beyond DOUGLAS KELLNER Stanford University Press Stanford, CaliforniaStaion Po Sten, Catom ‘OrBdng ube oly Pre, Canbidge ang paar oly Pres Ca itr aseocaton with Backwel Publishers, Oxford Regpblced oe USA ‘SfordUnrty Po 9 ned Gre Bin Cohavotontes Paper SEN O-07=1757-5 rina pring 1989 Las gre etow indicates year ofthis pring: 0 99 98 97 96 95 94 93 92 Contents Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Inroduction au 22 23 32 33 34 35 a 42 43 ‘Commodities, Needs and Consumption in the Consumer Society. 7 Starting Pont: The Stem of Objects ‘The Concumer Society Fora Critique of te Pobtiea Economy of the Sign Baudrillard and Poicl Economy 2 Beyond Marxism Marx, Needs and Use Values Marx and The Mirror of Production ‘Beudilard's Polite and the Criqee of French Communism {3 Media, Simulations and the End of the Social (On the Way to Postmoderity “MeLshan, Media and Information Simulation, Hyperelty and Implosion TheEndof the Socal? ‘Bauder, Posstructuralsm and Nietzsche 4, The Postmodern Carnival, Fashion, the Body and Serolity Lif, Desth and Siga Ftshism Postmodern Ar, Architecture and Sgn Csleure [Niilsm and Posemoderity 8 2 9 a s “ ° Se o a % a ° ” 102 18, 47w Contens 5. Provocstons 5.1 Beyond Freud andthe Micrrof Desire 52 Forget Foucealt 53 Baudrillard’ Afroncto Feminism: Dela sidan 54 Baudriladian Polemics and the French Cultural Scene (6 The Metaphysical Imaginary 61 Fatal Suategies and the Supremacy of the Object 62 America (63 ‘Forget Baudrillard and Laure par la-méme 64 Baudeiled andthe Return of Metaphysis, 7 Beyond Baudrillard 71 TheDivine Left 72 The Eenany of Baudrillard 73 For Radical Social Theory and Polit Notes Bibliography Inder ay rn 1 189 1s rt my 7 6 19 9 210 a a Es Bu certsnly for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing Sige, the copy 10 the original fancy to reality the appearance tothe ‘ence illson oly is acted, rath profane. Nay, sacredness is held to the enhanced in proportion a rath decreases and illson incense, so that, the highest degre of illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness. Tdwig Feverbach ‘As longs humanity has exited, progres its acquisitions have al een of the onder of senility. Each day, He Becomes nervous, hysterical And in ‘regard to this activity. ate you cea that modern melancholy doesnot Fool fem i? Do you know i the sadness ofthe cencury does not come {rom overwork, movement, emendous effort, furious labor, from is ‘reba frces strained to the breaking pint, from overproduction in every oman? “The Goncoure Brothers, “hy so hard” he charcoal once sid vo she diamond; for are we not close reltons?™ ‘Why #0 sof? © my brothers, thus I ask yous for are you not - my ‘broths? ‘Why 2 soft, unreistng and yskng? Why is there so much denial and sbacgtion in your hearts? So ile fat ia your glances? ‘And if you will not be fates, if you will nor be inexorable: how can you ~ conquer with me? “And if our ardness will not Mash and cut and cut pieces: how can you ‘one day ~ereae with me? Fidrch Nictache All things considered, che century of the end will not be the mos refined or ‘even the most complicated, but the mort hurried, the century in which, Being dissolved in moverent,civiizaon, na supreme impulse toward the worst, wl fall wo pieces in the whirlwind i has eased EM. Cioran “Le cna secon = Jean BaudAcknowledgments For discussion and helpful erica remarks on ever versions ofthis tex Tam grateful to Robert Antonio, Stephen Bronner, Judith Burton, Hary (Clever, Robert Fer, Beldon Fields, Gloria Gannaway, Robert Goldman, Cathrine Poye, Jonathan Res, Rick Roderick and Michael Ryan. Mike Featherstone encouraged me to wate a citique of che English-language ecepion of Bavdrld's work for Theory, Culture and Socery which helped mobilize and organize my thoughts for this project. My appecason and eriqu of Bandar’ theory of the consumer society i indebted to Robert Goldman's work and our discussions on these topics, while