The writings of Jean Baudrillard have dramatically altered the face of
critical theory and promise to pose challenges well into the 21st
century. His work on simulation, media, the status of the image, the
system of objects, hyperreality, and information technology continues to
influence intellectual work in a diverse set of fields. This volume
uniquely provides overviews of Baudrillard's career while also
simultaneously including examples of current works on and with
Baudrillard that engage some of the many and varied ways Baudrillard's
work is being addressed, deployed, and critiqued in the present. As
such, it offers chapters useful to the novice and the well-versed in
critical theory and Baudrillard Studies alike. Contributors to the
volume include John Armitage, John Beck, Ryan Bishop, Doug Kellner, John
Phillips and Mark Poster.
No less controversial today than he was in the past, Baudrillard
continues to divide intellectuals and academicians, an issue this volume
addresses by re-engaging the writing itself without falling into either
simplistic dismissal or solipsistic cheerleading, but rather by taking
the fecundity operative in the thought and meeting its consistent
challenge. Baudrillard Now provokes sustained interaction with one of
philosophy's most important, provocative and stimulating thinkers.
