HTH 1002 History of Thought II Spring 2017

1. Baudrillard
HTH 1002 History of Thought II
Kara Heitz

2. Postmodernism
• Not a theory but general approach
• Lyotard: Pomo is “incredulity towards meta-
narratives”
• Abundance of micronarratives
• Reality constructed through our thoughts, words,
actions
• No universally valid “truth”

3. Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007)
• French sociologist, philosopher, and cultural
theorist
• “High Priest of postmodernism”
• Skeptical of “postmodern” culture
• Post-structuralist semiotics
• Elusive search for meaning in PoMo societies
• Seduced by the simulation
• Simulacra and Simulation (1981)

4. .
“... In that Empire, the Art of Cartography
attained such Perfection that the map of a single
Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the
map of the Empire, the entirety of a Province. In
time, those Unconscionable Maps no longer
satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a
Map of the Empire whose size was that of the
Empire, and which coincided point for point with
it. The following Generations, who were not so
fond of the Study of Cartography as their
Forebears had been, saw that that vast map was
Useless, and not without some Pitilessness was
it, that they delivered it up to the Inclemencies
of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West,
still today, there are Tattered Ruins of that Map,
inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all the Land
there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of
Geography.”
- Purportedly from Suárez Miranda, “Travels of
Prudent Men, Book Four, Ch. XLV, Lérida”, 1658
(Actually from: Jorge Luis Borges, “On Exactitude in
Science”, short story, 1954)

5. What is Simulacra?
• Plural of Simulacrum
• OED #1: “An image or representation of
something”
• OED #2: “An unsatisfactory imitation or substitute”
• Baudrillard: copies that depict things that have no
“real” original

6. First order of Simulacra
• Pre-modern times
• Image is clear copy of the “real”
• Image recognized as an illusion

7. Second Order of
Simulacra
• Industrial Revolution
• Distinctions between image and the
“real” begin to break down
• Mass production
• Still belief in uncovering the “real”

8. Third Order of Simulacra
• Postmodern age
• No distinction between reality and the representation
• Representation precedes and determines the “real”
• Hyperreal
“It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication,
nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs
of the real for the real” ("The Precession of Simulacra" 2).

9. Example: Families in TV Sitcoms

10. Example:
Hygge - Real or Hyperreal?

11. Example: The Matrix