JEAN BAUDRILLARD PROFILE

Grace Arnell

CONTENTS

Brief  biography Main theories – outline their main arguments as they pertain

to media Quotes and quotable – exam useable quotes Terminology/ language – specific terms they employ Criticism – what do other people have to say about their

theories? Possible problems? Apply to media text – deconstruct a text using one of their

idea (if possible one of your case studies) General research for next lesson- wiki, you tube, slide share,

google, web search, textbooks etc

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Name: Jean Baudrillard

Nationality: French

Born: 27th July 1929 - Reims, France

Died: 6th March 2007 (aged 77) - Paris, France

Era: 20th / 21st -century philosophy

Region: Western Philosophy

School: Western Marxism, Post-Marxism, Post-Structuralism

Main interests: Mass Media ·Post modernity

Notable ideas: Hyper reality, Sign value, Simulacra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard

Baudrillard was born in Reims, north eastern France, on 27 July 1929. His grandparents were peasants and his parents were civil servants. During his high school studies at the Reims Lycée, he came into contact with pataphysics (media theory dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics), which is said to be crucial for understanding Baudrillard's later thought.

He became the first of his family to attend university when he moved to Paris to attend Sorbonne University. There he studied German language and literature, which led him to begin teaching the subject at several different lycées, both Parisian and provincial, from 1960 until 1966.While teaching, Baudrillard began to publish reviews of literature and translated the works of such authors as Peter Weiss, Bertolt Brecht, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Wilhelm Emil Mühlmann.

MAIN THEORIESJean Baudrillard - "the high priest of postmodernism." Baudrillard's key ideas include two that are often used in discussing postmodernism in the arts:

- simulation

- hyper reality

The hyperreal is "more real than real": something fake and artificial comes to be more definitive of the real than reality itself. Examples include:

- high fashion (which is more beautiful than beauty),

- the news ("sound bites" determine outcomes of political contests)

- Disneyland

A "simulation" is a copy or imitation that substitutes for reality. Again, the TV speech of a political candidate, something staged entirely to be seen on TV, is a good example.

A cynical person might say that for example weddings now exists for many people in order for videos and photos to be made - having a "beautiful wedding" means that it looks good in the photos and videos.

Baudrillard often writes in an exaggerated or hyperbolic style.

SIMULACRA AND SIMULATION Simulation 4 Step Process

of destabilizing and replacing reality…

1. Faithful – The image reflects a profound reality (Portrait)

2. Perversion – The image masks and denatures of profound reality (icon)

3. Pretense – The image makes the absence of a profound reality (Disney Land)

4. Pure – The image has no relation to any reality: it is its own pure simulation.

HYPER REALITY Baudrillard suggested that the media can now

create such idealistic representations of reality that our perform actual reality. – The audience is left depresses as they’re own life doesn’t live up to the artificial reality.

QUOTES AND QUOTABLE

“We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.”

“Simulation is no longer a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyper reality”

“The secret of theory is that truth does not exist.”

TERMINOLOGY/LANGUAGE Simulation – is the active process of replacement of the real Simulacrum – a representational image that deceives; the

product of simulation usurping reality (simply; a copy without an original) examples being: God, Disney Land.

Hyperreality - In semiotics and postmodernism, hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies.

Postmodernism - a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

APPLY TO MEDIA TEXT

The Anomaly (2014)A former soldier is taken captive and awakens in the back of a van where he learns that he only has a few moments to figure

out how he got there.

The Anomaly is postmodern due to relating it to hyper reality. This is because the film is based upon illusions upon illusions

with extreme technologies used. The themes of taking control of human minds and exaggerations such as societies views are

seen within the film.

Intertextual References – the film references and recreates other well known action scenes.

FREDRIC JAMERSON

CONTENTS

Brief  biography Main theories – outline their main arguments as they pertain

to media Quotes and quotable – exam useable quotes Terminology/ language – specific terms they employ Criticism – what do other people have to say about their

theories? Possible problems? Apply to media text – deconstruct a text using one of their

idea (if possible one of your case studies) General research for next lesson- wiki, you tube, slide share,

google, web search, textbooks etc

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY Fredric Jameson was born on 14th April 1934 and is an American literary critic and Marxist political theorist. He is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends. Jameson was born in Cleveland. After graduating in 1954 from Haverford College, he briefly travelled to Europe, where he learned of new developments in continental philosophy, including the rise of structuralism. He returned to America the following year to pursue a doctoral degree at Yale University, where he studied under Erich Auerbach.He once described postmodernism as the spatialization of culture under the pressure of organized capitalism. Jameson is currently William A. Lane Professor in The Program in Literature and Romance Studies at Duke University. In 2012, the Modern Language Association gave Jameson its sixth Award for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement.

Name: Fredric Jameson

Nationality: American

Born: 14th April 1934 (ages 83)

Era: 20th / 21st -century philosophy

Region: American literary critic and Marxist political theorist.

School: Western Marxism, Post-Marxism, Post-Structuralism

Main interests: Postmodernism, Modernism, science fiction, Utopia, narrative, structuralism

Notable ideas: Hyper reality, Sign value, Simulacra

MAIN THEORIES Marxism…

Production and Consumption…

His Views…

QUOTES AND QUOTABLE “If it is, in reality, capitalism that is the motor

force behind the destructive forms of globalization, then it must be in their capacity to neutralize or transform this particular mode of exploitation that one can best test these various forms of resistance to the West.”

“In most of the European countries - France stands out in its resistance to this particular form of American cultural imperialism - the national film industries were forced onto the defensive after the war by such binding agreements.”

CRITICISM Postmodern challenges the entire enterprise of education and truth. Postmodernism is a poor analytic tool.  Whatever one gains with

post-modernism, you take away from modernity.  For instance, turning all governments including democracies into equal parts tyranny doesn't exactly help fight for freedom or less oppression.  In addition, the norm to respect human dignity is different than the norm to take off your coat if you are going in doors--there are fundamentally different.  While I think geneaology might be able to handle this difference--the other tools fight against this.

Postmodern focus on language trades-off with real world focus on actual oppression (not just the violence of language, but real violence).  You can spend too much time on issues of language or the essentialism of labels and forget to make the world a better place.

Postmodernism is too idealistic.  We as humans need structure (ie laws and guiding mission statements).  The idea that magically getting rid of those structures would be beneficial to everyone isn't true.

Postmodernism is grounded on hyperbole and overgeneralization--which is what it critiques modernism for.  It can ultimately become the fundamentalism it tries to critique.

Post-modernism results in hyper-individualism, without much in common.  The problems with this are described in Bowling Alone.

Most of postmodernisms advantages can be captured by modern values and modern analytic tools.  You can examine power, ideology, and history without turning truth claims into mush.

Postmodernism results in ultimate relativism.  I've pointed to the problems of ethical relativism and relativism more broadly a number of times.  Here is one of those articles: A critique of relativistic theories of ethics

Assumptions & Caveats: To be fair, post-modernism is a rather broad field.  You would have to attack those folks around Heidegger, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, those postmodernist who talk about the nature of language, as well as a field-by-field analysis of the use of specific post-modern theories.