Jean Baudrillard

Cultural Theorist

• Born: July 29, 1929
• Birthplace: Reims, France
• Died: March 6, 2007
• Place of death: Paris, France

Biography

Jean Baudrillard was born in Reims, France, on July 29, 1929. The son of civil servants, he was the first member of his family to pursue an advanced education. He studied German at the Sorbonne in Paris and then taught German at a French high school from 1958 to 1966, while he continued his graduate studies. After completing his doctorate with a dissertation devoted to "the system of objects" in 1966, he began teaching as an assistant professor of sociology at the Nanterre branch of the University of Paris.

During the 1960s Baudrillard supported left-wing causes in France. He opposed US intervention in the Vietnam War, and he participated in the student uprisings of May 1968. His first two books, La Société de consommation: Ses mythes, ses structures (1970; Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, 1998) and Pour une critique de l’économie politique du signe (1972; For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign, 1996), critiqued capitalist society from a Marxist perspective through the lens of social semiology (the study of signs in everyday life). Influenced by semiologist Roland Barthes and others, he argued that media, fashion, politics, and various modes of signification produced diverse systems of meanings that had their own internal logic and rules.

In the late 1970s Baudrillard began to turn away from sociological analysis in favor of literary and philosophical concerns. In a series of short books, including Simulacres et Simulation (1981; Simulacra and Simulation, 1994) and L’Autre par lui-même: Habilitation (1987; The Ecstasy of Communication, 1988), he emphasized two related themes, "hyperreality" and "simulation," or the distorted reality and illusions that he believed were created by the mass media. Often referring to Disneyland as a metaphor for illusion, he was especially critical of American culture, which presumably epitomized all the excesses and superficialities of modernity.

In 1987 Baudrillard retired from the University of Paris X Nanterre and made a celebrated lecture tour in the United States, sponsored by Columbia University, the Art Institute of Chicago, and other elite institutions. By this time, he was an academic celebrity, and he enthralled large audiences with his theories about modern culture and mass communication. As his fame grew, he made increasingly radical assertions about the impossibility of discovering truth, even to the extent of writing that the Gulf War of 1991 had never really occurred. In Le Crime parfait (1995; The Perfect Crime, 1996), Baudrillard asserted the need to investigate the social and technological causes for the most important event in modern history: the "murder" of reality.

Because of his subjective theories of language and epistemology, combined with his views about an emerging postmodern culture, Baudrillard has often been called the father of postmodernism. In his later years, he stimulated much intellectual debate. His supporters looked up to him as a prophet and courageous pioneer who debunked the false illusions of modern science and technology. His critics, especially defenders of the Enlightenment tradition, dismissed his writings as unduly pessimistic, highly speculative, and frequently irrational. Others suggested that Baudrillard was primarily useful as a provocateur who had challenged conventional wisdom and rejected complacent assumptions about rationality and technological progress in advanced industrial societies.

Baudrillard's controversial theories brought him much attention not only from fellow scholars and theorists but also in popular culture. His most famous assertion, that humans are living in a simulated world (hyperreality), was picked up in various media as a key theme for works questioning established notions and promoting a pop culture version of sociological theory. Most notably, the hugely successful and influential science fiction film The Matrix (1999), directed by sibling duo the Wachowskis, contained direct references to Baudrillard and hinged its plot upon the idea that accepted reality is false. Though Baudrillard would reject such interpretations of his work as misunderstandings, he nonetheless gained a new generation of admirers through his association with the film.

In his later career Baudrillard continued to critique mainstream culture, including mass consumption beyond genuine need. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks he published a work examining the way in which fundamentalists attempt to manipulate reality to achieve their goals, for example by using terrorism to instill constant fear. He was likewise critical of the US invasion of Iraq.

Baudrillard died in Paris on March 6, 2007, at the age of seventy-seven after an extended illness.

Bibliography

Baudrillard, Jean, Richard G. Smith, and David B. Clarke. Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance: Uncollected Interviews. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015. Print.

Cohen, Patricia. "Jean Baudrillard, 77, Critic and Theorist of Hyperreality, Dies." International New York Times. New York Times, 7 Mar. 2007. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

"Jean Baudrillard: Biography." European Graduate School. European Graduate School, 2016. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

Lane, Richard J. Jean Baudrillard. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Wolters, Eugene. "Understanding Jean Baudrillard with Pumpkin Spice Lattes." Critical Theory. Critical-Theory, 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.