Simulacra and Simulation

Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007) was a French sociologist, linguist, cultural theorist, and philosopher who is best known for his critical analysis of consumerism, technology, and the media. Baudrillard is often associated with postmodernism and poststructuralism, although he distanced himself from both movements. Through interdisciplinary methods—including linguistics, social theory, science, film, architecture, and philosophy—he explored ideas about power, consumerism, reality, and art. He argued that modern life was erasing the human experience and that gender, race, class, and art were becoming mutated by the new technological life. Alongside Seduction (1978) and America (1986), Simulacra and Simulation (1981) remains one of Baudrillard’s most important contributions to modern thought.

Baudrillard was born to a family of farmworkers in northeastern France in 1929. He was the first in his family to attend university. Baudrillard studied German language and literature at the Sorbonne in Paris. He began his career teaching German and translating the works of Karl Marx, Peter Weiss, and Friedrich Engels. During this time, he became influenced by Marxist thought, though he later distanced himself from it as his ideas about hyperreality evolved. While teaching, he attended the University of Paris X at Nanterre to get his doctoral degree in sociology.