For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign

Description

What if the problems of modern society don't come from production, but rather consumption and the system of cultural signs? In this classic work from the defining intellectual of the postmodern, Jean Baudrillard, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign takes Marx's critique of political economy and its analysis of the commodity form as the starting point for an analysis of signs and their meaning in modern society. Influenced by Lefebvre's critique of everyday life, Barthes's semiology, and Situationism, Baudrillard analyses how objects are encoded within the system of signs and meanings that constitute contemporary media and consumer societies. Combining semiological studies and sociology of the consumer society, For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign contains Baudrillard's most extensive engagement with Marxism and shows him at a critical juncture for the development of his thought.

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Universite 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.

Modest, independent, and devastatingly humorous, Jean's work transmitted the lost urbanity of the mid-20th century while speaking of and into the future. -- Chris Kraus What can one say of Baudrillard? His strange and striking apercus captured the moment, and his predictive powers, as a man who saw early on the rise of the media state, were unique. -- Kathryn Bigelow For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign (1972) and The Mirror of Production (1973) constitutes, in my view, his most substantial contribution to philosophy, and deserves to be better known. From today's perspective, Baudrillard may seem a more significant prophet than he appeared at the time. * Philosophy Now * The most notorious intellectual celebrity to emerge from Paris since Roland Barthes and the most influential prophet of the media since Marshall McLuhan. * i-D magazine * Superstar of the simulacrum, shaman of the virtual, evangelist of the hyperreal. -- Geoff Dyer The most important French thinker of the past twenty years. -- J.G. Ballard The David Bowie of philosophy * The Guardian *