Sylvère Lotringer - Seminars / Workshops / Lectures

JEAN BAUDRILLARD: Reversibility and the Emptying of the Symbolic (3 credits)

Sylvère Lotringer, Ph.D.

Description: This course deals intensively with the work of Baudrillard, who is mostly known as a cultural critic for his simulacrum theory. Moving beyond a limited discussion of his work in this context we will explore the development of his critical analysis of contemporary culture. This analysis has large consequences for the way we think about media, politics, marxism, terrorism, and a host of other topics. In this course, Baudrillard will be discussed in relation to a number of thinkers that must be understood before one can begin to touch the depth of Baudrillard's writings: Antonin Artaud, Georges Bataille and Marcel Mauss. Additionally, we will retrace the development of Baudrillard's thought, from a relatively traditional interpretation of Marxism towards his radical attempt to turn Marx against himself. This then leads us to Jean Baudrillard's concepts from anthropology in an attempt to understand (and criticize) the specificity of our current age.

Objectives: The objective of this course is to enhance student's knowledge of Jean Baudrillard's work and its influence on contemporary thought. The main goal is to improve our understanding of Baudrillard's works and the strategies he devised to rethink consumer society and the ways in which it confronts us with the demise of the symbolic values that pervaded the world of our predecessors. What is the value of baudrillard's thought in dealing with the myriad of questions that confronts us in late capitalism? How does the nature of our consumer society influence the way we live, love, and fight? How can Baudrillard's works help us in rethinking these topics?

Learning Outcomes: Lotringer will focus on the claim that Jean Baudrillard had only one thought that took many forms: the thought of Reversibility.
In this course, the students will be familiarized with this thought; they will gain insight into the many shapes it took for Baudrillard, and they will understand in what ways this thought is still of vital importance. According to Jean Baudrillard, consumer society is absolutely unique in its ability to empty symbolic value. Yet, for Baudrillard, despite his generally perceived pessimism, there remains a seed of hope; the symbolic may reemerge in forms that are fitting to our postmodern age. Students will learn to work within Baudrillard's conceptual framework while gaining insight into the visionary nature of the work. At the end students will be enabled to extrapolate on current media phenomena and its relation to the theoretical backdrop provided by Baudrillard.

Required Readings and Assignments:

Baudrillard, Jean, Mark Poster (Introduction, ed), Jacques Mourrain (Translator). Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings. Stanford University Press. Stanford, California, October 1988, Hardcover, ISBN: 0804714789. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. September 1988, Paperback, ISBN: 0804714800. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. Expanded edition, June 2001, Hardcover, ISBN: 0804742723. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. Paperback, ISBN: 0804742731. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean and Charles Levin (Translator). For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. Telos. December 1980. Hardcover, Language English, ISBN: 0914386239. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. June 1981, Paperback, ISBN: 0914386247. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean, Philip Beitchman, W. G. J. Niesluchowski (Translators) and Jim Fleming (Editor). Fatal Strategies. Semiotext(e). October 1, 1986. Paperback, 192 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0936756500. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean and Iain Hamilton Grant (Translator) and Mike Gane (Introduction). Symbolic Exchange and Death. Theory, Culture & Society. Sage Publications. October 1993. Hardcover, Language English, ISBN: 0803983980. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean and Sheila Faria Glaser (Translator). Simulacra and Simulation. University of Michigan Press. December 1994. Hardcover, Language English, ISBN: 0472095218. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. January 1995, Paperback, ISBN: 0472065211. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean, Bernard, Caroline Schutze (Translators) and Sylvère Lotringer (Editor). The Ecstasy of Communication. Semiotext(e). June 1988. Paperback, Language English, ISBN: 0936756365. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. Semiotext(e), 1983. ISBN: 0936756020. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean and Chris Turner (Translator). The Spirit of Terrorism: And Other Essays (New Edition). Verso. October 2003. Rev Edition, Paperback, 120 pages, Language English, ISBN: 1859844480. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Baudrillard, Jean and James Benedict (Translator). The Transparency of Evil: Essays on Extreme Phenomena. Verso Books. June 1993. Hardcover, Language English, ISBN: 0860913872. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr. July 1993, Paperback, ISBN: 0860915883. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Recommended Readings and Assignments:

Jarry, Alfred. Ubu Roi. Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN:0486426874. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Artaud, Antonin. Trans. Mary C. Richard. The Theatre and its Double. Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 0802150306. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Mauss, Marcel. Trans. Halls, W.D. The Gift. W.W. Norton Company, 2000. ISBN: 039332043X. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Bataille, George Trans. Hurley, Robert. The Accursed Share. Zone Books, 1991. ISBN: 0942299116. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Bataille, Georges. Visions Of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939. University Of Minnesota Press. June 20, 1985. Paperback, 304 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0816612838. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.

Marx, Karl. "On the Commodity Festish." in: Marx, Karl and David Fernbach (Translator). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Penguin Classics. March 2, 1993. Vol. 3, Paperback, 1152 pages, Language English, ISBN: 0140445706. Buy it at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr.