Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, Modern Philosophy - 20th Century, Postmodernism, Philosophy - General & Miscellaneous, 20th Century French Philosophy
Reading Simulacra
M. W. Smith
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Overview
Reading Simulacra analyzes the ways in which our culture has become fatally immersed in simulation. Television, the Internet, virtual reality, and other advancements in technology and information processing have brought about an order in which simulations and digital images permeate our experiences of the world so deeply that their distinctions from reality appear seamless. Through a careful study of some of the most important postmodern theorists, particularly Jean Baudrillard and Deleuze and Guattari, this book puts forth two different communication strategies - "seduction" and "rupture" - for a world where the difference between what is real and what is simulated has disappeared. In an attempt to discern meaning from this contemporary situation, M. W. Smith examines a range of contemporary texts that have, in the past, resisted traditional analysis. These include the O. J. Simpson trial, Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, Reese Williams's A Pair of Eyes, Kathy Acker's Blood and Guts in High School and Don Quixote, Clarence Major's My Amputations, and Baudrillard's America - all of which represent the obscenity of hypersignified existence.Synopsis
Postmodern experience is simulated experience, commonly called simulacrum, says Smith (English, Bluefield State College), and those who would read texts of postmodern culture must take it for such. Among his topics are Nietzsche's legacy, radical semiurgy, dehistorized subjectivity, and media culture.
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Book Details
Published
September 1, 2001
Publisher
State University of New York Press
Pages
160
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780791450635