Publisher's Synopsis
This study traces the philopsophical roots of Baudrillard's thought to the evolution of critical theory in Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, through Lukacs, Heidegger, Bataille, and the structuralist and post-structuralist movements in philosophy and cultural theory. The book explains Baudrillard's use of such concepts as symbolic exchange, simulation, death, seduction, illusion, evil and virtual reality. Attention is also given to the relationship of Baudrillard's ideas to cultural studies, communications theory, feminism, psychoanalysis, postmodernism, politics and aesthetics.
