The Jean Baudrillard Reader - Steve Redhead

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Résumé :
Jean Baudrillard was perhaps the most controversial of all social and cultural theorists. He has been variously vilified as a 'postmodernist', an 'overrated French theorist' and one of the 'intellectual imposters'. In his seventies he survived global fame and a name check in The Matrix; he also contracted cancer. His comments on 9/11, Abu Ghraib and Europe's suburban riots have been eagerly sought and digested. However, his translated publications since his first book in 1968 have left a trail of confusion and misinterpretation. Jean Baudrillard is a notorious figure but few have read many examples of his entire oeuvre. There is now though a chance to read Baudrillard's texts in an overall historical, social and political context and for a cool re-assessment to be made of his life and work, after his death. This book is a central part of that project. It concentrates on what Baudrillard has written over five decades and the order in which he wrote it. The Reader comprises extracts of Baudrillard's writings from the sixties to the noughties, with an editorial introduction and a concluding reading guide.
Key Features
*Arranged chronologically in order of first publication in French, the Reader illustrates the development and interconnectedness of Baudrillard's work since the 1960s.
*Each section has an extract of one of Jean Baudrillard's writings translated into English, prefaced by a short bibliographical introduction setting the scene.
*The Reader will be of interest to students and staff in a range of university courses across the globe and to those general readers interested in public intellectuals, media events and contemporary theory.

Sommaire:
Contents
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: On Non-Postmodernity by Steve Redhead
Chapter 2: Mass Media Culture
Chapter 3: The Linguistic Imaginary
Chapter 4: The Ecliptic of Sex
Chapter 5: The Beaubourg Effect: Implosion and Deterrence
Chapter 6: Please Follow Me
Chapter 7: The Evil Demon of Images
Chapter 8: The Gulf War: Is It Really Taking Place?
Chapter 9: Pataphysics of the Year 2000
Chapter 10: Impossible Exchange
Chapter 11: The Millennium, or the Suspense of the Year 2000
Chapter 12: Truth or Radicality? The Future of Architecture
Chapter 13: The Art Conspiracy
Chapter 14: Requiem for the Twin Towers
Chapter 15: Pornography of War
Chapter 16: Contemporary Art: Art Contemporary with Itself
Chapter 17: The Pyres of Autumn
Chapter 18: We Have Never Been Postmodern: Reading Jean Baudrillard
by Steve Redhead