O'Reilly, John Anthony (1992) The vanishing of Jean Baudrillard. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The Vanishing of Jean Baudrillard examines
the question of Jean Baudrillard's desire for his
own disappearance as theorist. The thesis is an
evaluation of the philosophical significance of
his work. This is only possible by disengaging
his writing from the problematic of 'postmodernism'.
The category as applied to his work
serves to justify perceived frivolity and
aesthetic indulgence.
The age of post-modernity is understood to
herald a civilization of the image, or of
simulation. Baudrillard's analysis of the
simulacrum is often brought to bear as a
theoretical justification for this argument.
However for Baudrillard the simulacrum is not an
image. As he conceives it, the simulacrum has the
effect of undermining basic principles of reason
and causality. The simulacrum qua model has the
structure of anterior finality. Ultimately it
renders problematic traditional conceptions of
theory and its relation to the world.
The transformation of the question of
production provides the key to his work.
Production as the fundamental logic of political
economy and representation is superseded by the
process of reproduction and simulation. The scene
of the real and representation gives way to the
exacerbated representation of the obscenity of the
hyperreal - the absolute proximity of the more
real than real. The hyperreal is not the simple
destruction of causality or the production of ends
and values but their excess.
According to Baudrillard all critical
discourse is a function of the previous order of
representation. It only serves to sustain the
myth of the real and the values of subjectivity.
Through his elaboration of the processes of
seduction and the fatal strategy Baudrillard
attempts to access events which absorb the
subject, the real, value and all sense.
In this way the vanishing which Baudrillard
aspires to can be perceived, though not as a
project. His writing becomes the attempted
elucidation of an impossible event, without
reason, use or future. It is an event that cannot
be reconciled to any form of subjectivity.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Baudrillard, Jean, 1929-2007 -- Criticism and interpretation
Official Date:	September 1992
Dates:	Date Event September 1992 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Wood, David, 1946-
Extent:	v, 312 leaves
Language:	eng

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