Baudrillard, Jean

Jean Baudrillard's (b. 1929) name has become synonymous with the flowering of interest in postmodern theory that occurred in English-speaking countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the 1980s. At the time, one of his key theoretical concepts, “simulacrum,” was the buzzword of a wildly influential “Baudrillard Scene” that stretched across academic disciplines from science fiction studies to geography, animated interdisciplinary conferences, and spilled out into performance and art spaces. Not even leisure wear was immune as baseball caps emblazoned with simulacrum were regularly sighted in North American bohemias. Baudrillard was thought by many to be the ringmaster of the postmodern circus of late capitalism. With the publication of his travelogue, America (1986), his reputation went global and earned ...