WHAT IS POST-MODERNISM?

Jean Baudrillard

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories IV

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

THERE ARE A FEW KEY IDEAS THAT WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE

YOU CAN FULLY UNDERSTAND BAUDRILLARD’S THEORIES:

HYPERREALITY

SIMULACRA

SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE

WHAT IS HYPERREALITY?

A reality that isn’t real!

Symbols are meant to symbolise something else.

Think - what do these symbolise:

SYMBOLS ARE NOT THEMSELVES REAL, BUT ARE MEANT TO SYMBOLISE SOMETHING

REAL. This is called “SYMBOLIC EXCHANGE”.

BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE FAKE SYMBOL ONLY COMES TO SYMBOLISE ITSELF

– there is nothing beyond the symbol.

What would this look like?

Hyperreality is the inability to distinguish the ‘real’ from the ‘simulated’.

It only has a ‘surface reality’ – there Is no longer an original thing left for it to

represent.

‘Disneyland’ is the example that Baudrillard uses for this: a real, physical

space that is also clearly a fictional, representational world.

This ‘simulated imagery’ (i.e. simulated symbols) are called

simulacra.

They are symbols stripped of meaning. Stripped of any reference point.

They are not real, but we treat them as if they are real.

THERE IS NO LONGER A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REALITY AND ITS PRESEPRESENTING IMAGE

(ITS ‘SIMULACRUM’)

BAUDRILLARD DOES NOT ARGUE THAT THE MEDIA DISTORTS REALITY.

RATHER, HE ARGUES THAT IT HAS CREATED SO MANY COMPETING

REALITIES THAT THERE IS NO LONGER A ‘REAL’ REALITY – MEANING HAS BEEN

LOST AMONGST A PLURALITY OF IMAGES AND INFINITE SYMBOLS.

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

A 1991 war between US-led coalition

and Iraq after Iraq (ruled by Saddam

Hussein) invaded the small

neighbouring country of Kuwait. (a.k.a.

“Operation Desert Storm”).

It lasted about one month and was

widely televised, including reporters on

the front lines and video footage from

US bombers.

The US-led forces succeeded in

pushing Iraqi forces our of Kuwait, but

the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, was

left in power and largely unhindered by

the conflict.

THE GULF WAR DID NOT TAKE PLACE

Jean Baudrillard

Saddam Hussein was

not really fighting the

Coalition, but using

the lives of his

soldiers as a form of

sacrifice to preserve

his power.

The Coalition fighting

the Iraqi military was

merely dropping

10,000 tonnes of

bombs daily, as if

proving to themselves

that there was an

enemy to fight.

The Western media

presented the war in

real time by recycling

images of war to

propagate the notion

that the US-led

coalition and the Iraqi

government were

actually fighting, but

this was not the

reality.

Saddam Hussein did not use his

military capacity (e.g. the Iraqi Air

Force). His power was not weakened,

as seen in his easy suppression of

the 1991 internal uprisings that

followed after the war.

Overall, little had changed. Saddam

remained undefeated, the "victors"

were not victorious, and thus there

was no true war — i.e. the Gulf War

did not take place.

SOURCE: Jean Baudrillard, The Gulf War Did Not Take Place

THE WAR ON TERROR