Baudrillard, Jameson and Lyotard

Involved in post modernism as his theories deconstruct the truth.

He addresses the natures of reality and how often it is constructed.

Jean Baudrillard

Theory of hyper reality

Baudrillard believed hyper reality to be a reality

which has been replaced by simulacra.

Simulacrum is an image or representation of

someone or something.

A simulation

Hyper reality is the division between real and

simulation – if there is no real object then there is

no illusion of the object.

It is a mixture of both real and simulation.

It exists but it is only a representation/illusion.

Applying hyper reality

An example of hyper reality would be

celebrities whose lives are taken care of by

someone else - are said to live in a hyper real

world.

Another example would be the effect of video

games.

Where the line stops between the realism of

a virtual world in game and reality.

One man believed he was in a game and would

gain points by carrying out illegalities. The worst

crime he committed was killing his best friend.

He could not distinguish reality and virtual worlds.

More examples of hyper reality

Inception

The Matrix

Sixth Sense

Disney land

It brings fiction and imagination to something that

seems real as people can walk around and touch

buildings identical to those they have seen in films

and collect autographs etc.

The Truman Show

TOWIE/Made In Chelsea

Derren Brown e.g. Derren Brown’s Apocalypse

Fredric Jameson

About American literary critic and Marxist political theorist, best

known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends Marxist theorist – believes that each class is defined by its

relation to the productive process .E.g. hierarchical 1984 – the publication of his essay; “Postmodernism, or

The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” (later expanded into a book)

- became known as one of the most prominent critics of postmodernism- argues that “aesthetic production today has become integrated into commodity production generally”

- commodity production = production of wares for sale – not produced for direct consumption but with specific intention of sale in the market

- postmodernism = a cultural dominant – driven primarily by the forces of consumer multinational capitalism

His Thoughts

Described the postmodern condition as:

- “a new kind of flatness, of

depthlessness, a new kind of superficiality in

the most literal sense”

In his essay:

- describes the loss of reality in historical

writing –

“we can no longer represent the historical past;

but can only ‘represent’ our ideas and

stereotypes about the past”

Loss of Historical Reality In the postmodern era our historical past is

represented “not through its content but through its glossy stylistic means, conveying ‘pastness’ by the glossy quality of the images”

Pastiche = an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period

- instead of creating our own unique styles we look to the past and imitate old, dead styles through pastiche

- unlike a parody, it is often intended as a compliment to the original (an

homage)

Jean-François Lyotard

About

The idea of truth needs to be

‘deconstructed’ in order to challenge the

dominant ideas that are claimed to be

truth (the grand narrative).

It could be considered a luxury to

challenge the idea of truth in Western

media when there are more heavily

censored countries where the civilians

most basic human rights are challenged.