The Transparency of Evil: Essays in Extreme Phenomena - Softcover

Baudrillard, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860915883 ISBN 13: 9780860915881

Publisher: Verso, 1993

Synopsis

In this, his most important collection of essays since Le systeme des objets, Jean Baudrillard contemplates Western culture “after the orgy”—the orgy, that is, of the revolutions of the 1960s. The sexual revolution has led, he argues, not to sexual liberation but to a reign of transvestism, to a confusion of the categories of man and woman—to the “androgenous and Frankenstein appeal of a Michael Jackson.” The revolution in art has led to a “transaesthetic realm of indifference.” The cybernetic revolution has blurred the distinction between man and machine, while the political revolution has led to a ‘transpolitics’ that merely simulates old political forms. Such are the points of Baudrillard’s compass as he steers his way through the mental landscape of this febrile fin de siecle.

About this title

About the Author:

Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) began teaching sociology at the Université de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007. His many works include Simulations and Simulacra, America, The Perfect Crime, The System of Objects, Passwords, The Transparency of Evil, The Spirit of Terrorism, and Fragments, among others.

Language Notes:

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About this edition

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0860915883
• ISBN 13: 9780860915881
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 174