Jean Baudrillard: Uncollected Interviews

336 Pages·2017·1.285 MB·English

by  Clarke, David B.;Smith, Richard G

Jean
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Baudrillard
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‘Jean Baudrillard covers an enormous amount of ground here: n
from the way he worked, his career, through his major ideas, to
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topics such as hatred and terrorism. Baudrillard is witty and
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inventive, defends and develops his ideas clearly and vigorously. u
A dazzling display. Sharp and fascinating.’ d
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Mike Gane, Loughborough University
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The Disappearance
23 interviews with the renowned French philosopher
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and cultural commentator d
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Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) was one of the world’s most influential, celebrated e

and controversial thinkers. His remarkable insights and often provocative ideas D
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are presented in their most accessible form in the many inter views he gave over a
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the course of his career. p
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The first book of inter views for over two decades, this volume contains material a UNCOLLECTED
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first published in English, French, German and Nor wegian – including one inter c
e INTERVIEWS

view translated into English for the first time. o
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It contains 23 highly insightful yet previously difficult-to-find inter views, ranging l
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over topics as diverse as ar t, war, technology, globalisation, terrorism r
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and the fate of humanity.
Richard G. Smith is Associate Professor in Human Geography at Swansea
University.
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David B. Clarke is Professor of Human Geography, also at Swansea University. d
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Cover image: Jean Baudrillard in Paris, France on 6th December, 1994
Edited by Richard G. Smith and David B. Clarke
© Peter Hamilton/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
Cover design: McColmDesign.co.uk
Jean Baudrillard: The Disappearance of Culture

Jean Baudrillard:
The Disappearance of Culture
Uncollected Interviews
Edited by Richard G. Smith and
David B. Clarke
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the
humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high
editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance.
For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com
© editorial matter and organisation Richard G. Smith and David B. Clarke, 2017
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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Typeset in 10.5/13 pt Sabon by
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and printed and bound in Great Britain by
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ISBN 978 1 4744 1777 8 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 1779 2 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 1778 5 (paperback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 1780 8 (epub)
The right of Richard G. Smith and David B. Clarke to be identified as the editors of
this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Published with the support of the Edinburgh University Scholarly Publishing
Initiatives Fund.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction: Baudrillard Unplugged 1
Interviews
1 Is Transgression a Mode of Political Action? 13
2 Dropping Out of History 36
3 Catastrophic, but Not Serious 46
4 The Apathy of the Masses 66
5 The Transparency of Kitsch 80
6 Baudrillard Shrugs: Terrorism and the Media 93
7 Strange World 113
8 The Ex-termination of the Real 118
9 La Commedia dell’Arte 129
10 From Popular Culture to Mass Culture 137
11 The Ecstasy of Photography 150
12 Baudrillard’s List 163
13 Viral and Metaleptic 172
14 The Homeopathic Disappearance of Architecture 182
15 For Illusion 187
16 Impossible and Unexchangeable 194
17 The Art of Disappearance 210
18 Solutions for a Post-technological Society 216
19 Apropos of Utopie 251
20 The Murder of Reality 266
21 Alterity as Fate 272
22 Artificiality and Seduction 285
23 The Roots of Evil 293
24 The Mirror of Photojournalism 303
vi Jean Baudrillard
25 Hoping to Resolve the Irresolvable 307
Select Journal Special/Theme Issues/Sections on Jean Baudrillard
in English 312
Select Books on Jean Baudrillard in English 313
Name Index 315
Subject Index 318
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all those who have kindly granted their permis-
sion for us to reproduce copyrighted material. Full credit is provided
to copyright holders following each interview. Whilst considerable
effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders prior to
publication, the editors and publishers apologise for any oversights or
omissions and, if notified, will endeavour to remedy these at the earliest
opportunity. Our thanks go to the following people for their generous
assistance in preparing this book: Marine Baudrillard, Pierre Boncenne,
Rex Butler, William Chaloupka, Marcus Doel, Mike Gane, Gary
Genosko, Bas Haan, William Merrin, Katharina Niemeyer, Melissa
Pawelski, Antoine Perraud, Tim Otto Roth, Diane Rubenstein, Dick van
Spronsen, William Stearns, and Antoon Van den Braembussche. Last
but certainly not least, we offer our sincere thanks to Chris Turner and
to Carol Macdonald for their considerable efforts and ongoing support
throughout the preparation of the manuscript.

Introduction: Baudrillard Unplugged
Nothing (not even God) now disappears by coming to an end, by dying.
Instead, things disappear . . . as a result of their transfer into the secondary
existence of simulation. Rather than a mortal mode of disappearance, then,
a fractal mode of dispersal.
(Baudrillard 1993a: 4)
It is forbidden to unplug yourself, and not only in active, interactive social
life, but also on your deathbed: it is forbidden to tear out the tubes, even
if you want to . . . The network principle carries with it the absolute moral
obligation to remain plugged in.
(Baudrillard 1990: 197)
Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007), a French thinker associated with the
Events of May 1968 who subsequently staged his own disappear-
ance from the rarefied world of academia in order to reappear as a
free radical, an agent provocateur of the cultural sphere, understood
the nature of disappearance better than most – and, with it, the fate
of the world. His position outside the academy allowed him to bear
witness to the events, non-events, and processes of disappearance that
are documented in the series of interviews – employing that term sensu
amplo – brought together in this volume. What we shall continue to
refer to as ‘interviews’ as a convenient short-hand in fact encompasses
a far wider range of dialogical formats: panel discussions, round tables,
and question-and-answer sessions, as well as interviews as convention-
ally understood.
Baudrillard’s withdrawal from the French academic scene, whilst
hardly a deliberate ploy, nonetheless marked his destiny. It allowed
him to disengage from the established currents of academic thought, to
escape the gravitational pull of notions such as alienation, class strug-
gle, cultural capital, the unconscious, desire, and so on, and to embark
on an ex-orbital trajectory that allowed his own singular perspective