Postmodern theorists

Media A2

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard
Simulacra and Simulation (Simulacres et Simulation in French) is a philosophical treatise by Jean Baudrillard that discusses the interaction between reality, symbols and society. The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth--it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true.*1+ Simulacra and Simulation is most known for its discussion of images, signs, and how they relate to the present day. Baudrillard claims that modern society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that the human experience is of a simulation of reality rather than reality itself. The simulacra that Baudrillard refers to are signs of culture and media that create the perceived reality; Baudrillard believed that society has become so reliant on simulacra that it has lost contact with the real world on which the simulacra are based.

Fredric Jameson

Fredric Jameson
He has criticised postmodernism. He sees postmodernism as "vacuous and trapped in circular references". As well as this Jameson has described it as nothing more that a series of self referential 'jokes' which have no deeper meaning or purpose. For him, literary and cultural output is more purposeful than this and he therefore remains a modernist in a world increasingly dominated by postmodern culture.

Jean-Franois Lyotard

Jean-Franois Lyotard
Lyotard rejected what he called the grand narratives or universal meta-narratives. Basically, the grand narratives (big stories) refer to the great theories of history, science, religion, politics. For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that everything is knowable by science or that as history moves forward in time, humanity makes progress, and therefore he also rejects that everyone follows one of three grand narratives, and introduced the idea of micronarratives. Lyotard favours micronarratives (little stories) that can go in any direction, that reflect diversity, that are unpredictable, which show that everyone is different and everyone has their own stories.