Book Synopsis

The first English biography of the twentieth-century French sociologist and philosopher.

Once hailed as a historian of the future, Jean Baudrillard remains a vital figure for understanding the present. Famous for ideas like "simulation" and the "hyperreal," linked to postmodernism and The Matrix, Baudrillard was both celebrated and controversial in his time, largely due to his bold pronouncements about events including the Gulf War and 9/11. The man himself, however, remains enigmatic.

This first biography in English explores Baudrillard's life and work, tracing his journey from the early years and French intellectual prominence to his global influence as a thinker, photographer, and public intellectual. Using newly uncovered material, Emmanuelle Fantin and Bran Nicol provide fresh insights into his major works and ideas, offering readers a clear guide to his singular, uncompromising philosophy.

Review Quotes

"Jean Baudrillard, as this new biography is titled, is brief. This is in part because the man revealed little about his life. At a 2005 talk at Tilton Gallery, he said he was simply 'the simulacrum of myself.' What makes the book so fun to read is that you can see him living out his own pronouncements with his signature wry humor, making his abstract ideas into concrete behaviors, not unlike a performance artist. Quite literally, the book makes his ideas come alive."-- "Art in America"

"How could such a celebrated French intellectual have remained so elusive and enigmatic? This paradoxical provocation is addressed through attention to Baudrillard's literary forms: fragments, aphorisms, theory fictions. Sophisticated and user friendly, it appeals to scholars and beginners as well as the Baudrillardian in all of us."--Diane Rubenstein, Cornell University

"Fantin and Nicol have produced a brilliant book on the richly creative and compelling analyses of the prolific French thinker Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard's work on technology and its impact, consumerism, the media, signs and simulations continues to resonate with the digitalization of our experience of everyday life and Jean Baudrillard deserves to be widely read."--Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth

About the Author

Emmanuelle Fantin is assistant professor of communication and media studies at Sorbonne Université. Her books include Le livre dont Jean Baudrillard est le héros. Bran Nicol is professor of English literature at the University of Surrey. His books include The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction.