Jean Baudrillard: Against Banality (Key Sociologists)

209 Pages·2007·1.23 MB·English

by  William Pawlett

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JEAN BAUDRILLARD
This uniquely engaging introduction to Jean Baudrillard’s controver-
sial writings covers his entire career, from his early theorisation of the
consumer society, his contributions to social semiotics, his neglected
masterpiece Symbolic Exchange and Death, to his later works on ter-
rorism and 9/11. The book focuses on Baudrillard’s central, but little
understood, notion of symbolic exchange. Through the clarification
of this key term a very different Baudrillard emerges: not the nihilistic
postmodernist and enemy of Marxism and feminism that his critics
have constructed, but a thinker immersed in the social world and pas-
sionately committed to a radical theorisation of it.
Baudrillard was a harsh critic of consumerism, of globalisation and
of US foreign policy. He mocked the West’s desire to unveil, to strip
bare, to accumulate and to possess. He attacked pornography, advert-
ising and ‘reality’ TV, as well as science and information technology,
for exemplifying this naive and ultimately impossible ‘dis-illusioning’
of the world. Above all Baudrillard sought symbolic spaces, spaces
where we might all, if only temporarily, shake off the system of social
control. His writing sought to challenge and defy the system. By eras-
ing our ‘liberated’ identities and suspending the pressures to compete,
perform, consume and hate, that the system induces, we might create
spaces not of freedom, but of symbolic engagement and exchange.
With lively critical discussion, this groundbreaking text is accessible
to an undergraduate audience and will be an invaluable resource for
those studying sociology, contemporary social theory, cultural studies
and political sociology.
William Pawlettis a senior lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University
of Wolverhampton. He received his PhD in Sociology from Lough-
borough University and is on the editorial board of The International
Journal of Baudrillard Studies.
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KEY SOCIOLOGISTS
Edited by PETER HAMILTON
This classic series provides students with concise and readable introductions
to the work, life and influence of the great sociological thinkers. With indi-
vidual volumes covering individual thinkers, from Emile Durkheim to Pierre
Bourdieu, each author takes a distinct line, assessing the impact of these major
figures on the discipline as well as the contemporary relevance of their work.
These pocket-sized introductions will be ideal for both undergraduates and
pre-university students alike, as well as for anyone with an interest in the
thinkers who have shaped our time.
Series titles include:
EMILE DURKHEIM PIERRE BOURDIEU
Ken Thompson Richard Jenkins
THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL SIGMUND FREUD
AND ITS CRITICS Robert Bocock
Tom Bottomore
ZYGMUNT BAUMAN
GEORG SIMMEL Tony Blackshaw
David Frisby
AUGUSTE COMTE
MARX AND MARXISM Mike Gane
Peter Worsley
ERVING GOFFMAN
MAX WEBER Greg Smith
Frank Parkin
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
MICHEL FOUCAULT William Pawlett
Barry Smart
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JEAN BAUDRILLARD
Against Banality
WILLIAM PAWLETT
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First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2007 William Pawlett
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Pawlett, William.
Jean Baudrillard / William Pawlett.
p. cm
ISBN 978-0-415-38644-9 (hard cover) — ISBN 978-0-415-38645-6
(paper cover) 1. Baudrillard, Jean, 1929–2007—Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Sociologists—France. 3. Sociology—
France—Philosophy. I. Title.
HM477.F8P38 2007
301.092—dc22
2007020950
ISBN 0-203-93736-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0-415-38644-6 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-38645-4 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-203-93736-8 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-38644-9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-38645-6 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-93736-5 (ebk)
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For M
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1
The Object System, the Sign System and the
Consumption System 7
Chapter 2
The ‘Break’ with Marxism 28
Chapter 3
Symbolic Exchange and Death 47
Chapter 4
Simulation and the End of the Social 70
Chapter 5
The Body, Sexuality and Seduction 91
Chapter 6
Into the Fourth Order 107
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viii Contents
Chapter 7
War, Terrorism and 9/11 133
Chapter 8
Subjectivity, Identity and Agency 150
Conclusion 168
Notes 173
Bibliography 186
Index 194
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks to the following people for their sup-
port and advice: Mike Gane, Mick Dillon, Gerry Carlin, Aidan Byrne,
Victor Gazis and Meena Dhanda. Thanks also to Neil Iden and the
Bodleian Library.