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Denna uppsats studerar dokusåpan Expedition: Robinson som exempel på en hyperrealitet. Syftet är att förtydliga betydelsen av hyperrealitet som teoretiskt begrepp på ett svenskt sammanhang. Uppsatsen börjar därför med en introduktion av Jean Baudrillards teori om hyperrealitet och därefter en fördjupning i dokusåpagenrens historia, innan dokusåpans bemötande i pressen analyseras. Uppsatsen argumenterar för att det finns ett nära samband mellan dokusåpan som medialt fenomen och hyperrealiteten som teoretiskt begrepp, då båda är fiktioner som utger sig för att vara verkligheter: hyperrealitet är ett slags overklighet som ger intryck av förhöjd verklighet och dokusåpa är ett programkoncept som påstås visa verkligheten men egentligen konstruerar den. Uppsatsen undersöker hur och vad produktionen av dokusåpan betonar som ”verklighet”, dvs. vilka faktorer framhävs som verklighetstrogna. Som den första svenska, och tidigt kontroversiella, dokusåpan ligger uppsatsens fokus på Expedition: Robinson; som ett tävlingsprogram utspelad i en exotisk miljö, inspirerad av en litterär förlaga, är effekten av realism särskilt intressant i detta fall. Analysen av Expedition: Robinson koncentreras till produktionen och mediareceptionen främst av säsongerna 1 och 7, som resulterar i en diskussion kring mediebevakningens förändring och huruvida man kan uppfatta ett skifte i hyperrealitet i samband med den utvecklingen.

This dissertation uses the case of Jean Baudrillard to argue that successful critics must consider rhetorical method as it relates to theory. Throughout this dissertation, I follow Edwin Black in using the term rhetorical method to describe the procedures a rhetor uses to guide composition. The project's two main goals are, first, to demonstrate how rhetorical method can serve as a foundation for worthwhile criticism, and, second, to outline a Baudrillardian rhetoric. In order to meet these goals, I perform close readings of Baudrillard's oeuvre alongside a wide range of sources, including critical writings, classical works, analogic photographs, contemporary texts, and recent obituaries. Chapter one introduces my project and the concept of rhetorical method through an anecdote, which compares the later paintings of Andy Warhol to the writings of Jean Baudrillard. Next, I define rhetorical method and distinguish it from the concepts of critical method and rhetorical object. Then, I reveal the importance of rhetorical method in criticism by reviewing three cross-disciplinary interpretations of Baudrillardian rhetoric. I analyze each interpretation according to its argumentative strength, its treatment of rhetorical method, and its engagement with Baudrillard's reputation as a cross-disciplinary, postmodern rhetor. I argue that rhetorical method asks critics to reconsider the foundations of their interpretive claims. To conclude, I analyze one of Baudrillard's own essays that treats Warhol, assessing the degree to which Baudrillard critically engages with Warhol's rhetorical method. Chapter two demonstrates that understanding rhetorical method opens up new understandings of rhetors and their rhetoric, by critically engaging Jean Baudrillard's dominant rhetorical method: exchange. Baudrillardian exchange radically revises the conventional rhetorical paradigm (to the exclusion of audience) and relies upon the perpetual movement between two agonistic theories of language: (1) the materialist theory—appearance, production, meaning-making; (2) the anti-materialist theory—disappearance, seduction, meaning-challenging. Baudrillard metaphorically describes exchange as a two-sided game and often embraces the anti-materialist theory of language in his writing and photography in order to challenge the materialist theory of language. After providing examples from his aphoristic writing and his analogic photography, I show how Baudrillard mobilizes disappearance as a move in service of his rhetorical method by analyzing one of his last works: Why Hasn't Everything Already Disappeared? I argue that, in this text, Baudrillard's rhetorical move of disappearance shifts in accordance with the posthumanist turn in thought, but his rhetorical method of exchange remains consistent with his earlier works. Chapter three deploys exchange as a critical method by generalizing and extending this rhetorical method as an interpretive framework that can be applied to texts other than Baudrillard's own. Specifically, I show how Isocrates's Antidosis is successful in its creation of an ambivalent rhetorical space—a space that upends convention, dissolves logics, and ruptures values—and how James Frey's A Million Little Pieces is unsuccessful. In sum, my analysis of these two texts, one classical and one controversial, considers the ability of each text and its surrounding paratexts to challenge the meaning-making system and break with convention. My analysis further positions Baudrillardian rhetoric as a sophistic rhetoric that offers recourse to rhetors, such as Isocrates or Frey, who momentarily occupy the weaker side of the argument. Yet beyond forwarding a strong counterargument, the attention that Baudrillardian exchange pays to value systems proves a framework that is particularly amenable to questions of the public good. Chapter four offers a metacritical commentary on the use of Baudrillardian rhetoric as a critical method as well as on the construction of Baudrillard as a rhetorical theorist. Focusing on the relationship between method and theory in rhetorical criticism, I argue that rhetorical criticism is a productive enterprise and that existing explanations of this enterprise are insufficient because they abandon method. To better explain the method and theory dynamic that produces rhetorical criticism, I turn to Baudrillard's work on the model and the series in The System of Objects. After demonstrating method's affinity with the model and theory's affinity with the series, I argue that the distinction between the model and the series is a rhetorical distinction. With that distinction in mind, I offer a metacritical commentary about the ways in which rhetorical scholars have treated Baudrillard's writing and constructed him as a rhetorical theorist. To conclude my discussion, I turn to Baudrillard's own critical commentary about his rhetoric as it relates to his notion of the simulacrum. Analyzing his discussion of "the rhetoric of simulation" in The Perfect Crime, I argue that Baudrillard was indeed a rhetorical theorist in the most robust sense, since he engages with both theory and method. Chapter five argues that critics should consider rhetorical method to be as important to rhetoric as ethos. To support this argument, I examine two instances of criticism which involved unflattering obituaries and their responses: Jonathan Kandell's 2004 obituary of Jacques Derrida and Carlin Romano's 2007 obituary of Jean Baudrillard. I, first, analyze these obituaries in accordance with a conventional understanding of rhetoric as representation and, second, in accordance with each theorist's rhetorical method. While conventional responses to these obituaries could repudiate them for their negative tones and nasty messages, I contend that both theorists actually sanction these admittedly distasteful texts. In other words, the unconventional approaches of both rhetorical theorists to writing—namely, the Derridian différance and the Baudrillardian fatal strategies—seem to endorse the respective obituaries. I argue that these obituaries further suggest two new models of obituary writing, both of which are grounded in revised understandings of poststructuralist epideictic rhetoric: (1) a Derridian model that exposes the inadequacy of the contextual component of epideictic rhetoric; and, (2) A Baudrillardian model that revises the relationship between epideictic rhetoric and the value contemporary society places upon vitality. In my conclusion, I propose a methodological definition of rhetoric: Rhetoric is the meeting of two methods. As I argue, this definition of rhetoric is not only grounded in the history of rhetorical studies but it also possesses much potential in contemporary times. As contemporary rhetorical studies emerges as an interdisciplinary endeavor, this methodological definition of rhetoric will allow rhetoricians to explain what rhetorical studies actually studies and how those studies are conducted. It will allow rhetorical critics to bracket the questions that forestall the study of rhetoric and explore a variety of methodological interstices. This definition can further imbue rhetorical studies with a research status tied to method that it has so desperately sought at certain historical junctures. / Ph. D.

The story you are about to read is one revealing how art infiltrated my home. It is an unplugged speech describing the methodology, visions. interests, and relationships behind my photographs. My photographs document my ideas of space in places personal to me. I talk about carrying the idea of space and its relationship to Jean Baudrillard’s theories of simulation and simulacra. I do not want to enforce any illusions of metaphysical importance behind my work. This work was made out of creative science. My goal was to convey a thought, and this thesis is to share the experience of doing so.

The focus of this essay is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. My central claim is that a theme of belonging underpins the novel and is recurrent in a number of different ways. In my reading, I utilise Jean Baudrillard’s postmodern critical concepts to produce this interpretation. I argue that the theme of belonging can be interpreted using Baudrillard’s loss of the real and hyperreal concepts. The usefulness of these concepts is primarily based on the element of clones and cloning in the narrative. Baudrillard’s theories deal with signs and images that do not correspond with the realities that they are meant to represent, mirroring the predicament of the Hailsham students in Never Let Me Go. My essay presents three main areas of discussion in relation to the theme of belonging. Firstly, Hailsham and the students are examined using the loss of the real/hyperreal concepts. The second area deals with belongings as a recurrent motif. In my reading, the dual meaning of the word belonging is an important factor in identifying the theme. This particular discussion deals also with ownership. The final area of discussion revolves around the issue of genre, or rather genres. The novel’s mixture of character drama and science-fiction dystopia is discussed in relation to the loss of the real/hyperreal. / Uppsatsens fokus är Kazuo Ishiguros Never Let Me Go. Min huvudtes är att det finns ett tema av tillhörighet som utmärker romanen. I min läsning applicerar jag Jean Baudrillards postmoderna kritiska begrepp i tolkningen av texten. I uppsatsen argumenterar jag att temat av tillhörighet kan tolkas med hjälp Baudrillards begrepp förlust av verkligheten samt hyperverkligheten. Användbarheten av dessa begrepp bygger på förekomsten av kloner och kloning i texten. Baudrillards teorier handlar om tecken och bilder som ej motsvarar verkligheten på ett tydligt sätt, och denna brist på korrespondens mellan verklighet och representation avspeglar Hailsham-elevernas situation i Never Let Me Go. Min uppsats har tre huvuddiskussioner i förhållande till temat tillhörighet. För det första, undersöks Hailsham och eleverna med med hjälp av begreppen förlust av verkligheten/hyperverkligheten. Andra diskussionsområden handlar om tillhörighet/er som återkommande tema. I min läsning, är det faktum att ordet tillhörighet har två definitioner en viktig aspekt när man ska identifiera temat. Denna diskussion handlar också om äganderätt. Den sista diskussionen handlar om romanens genre, eller genrer. Även romanens blandning av karaktärsdrama och science-fictiondystopi diskuteras i förhållande till Baudrillards begrepp förlust av verkligheten/hyperverkligheten.

The thesis deals with the theory of simulation and simulacra by French representative of postmodernism Jean Baudrillard. It focuses on way how Baudrillard thematises gradual extinction of signs connected with their representational function and the emergence of hyperreality which contains simulation. The attention is also focused on concept of reality, virtuality, simulation and illusion. The thesis includes Paul Virilio's thoughts and also Manuel Castells'. The basic framework of research is completed by a theory of fictional worlds. The second part of thesis includes an analysis of how this issue is reflected in present film production via analysis of content of the films The Matrix (Wachowski, 1999) and Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001). The analysis reflects different interpretation of illusive/virtual space and its relation to reality. The aim of thesis is to analyse the selected concepts which describe an emergence and interaction of simulation focusing on contemporary society which is connected with modern technology and also to point at reflection of conceptions mentioned in the films. The goal of thesis is also to explore the films, compare them and show the way how they contain the theme of reality, simulation and illusion and how much is the content of these films connected with the action...

This thesis, which supports an exhibition of visual art, develops from Jean Baudrillard's philosophy of seduction. I have focused on the representation of the bachelor and his pad in American men's magazines from the mid-twentieth century. During this period, magazines such as Playboy, Escapade and Rogue created features on modern living to reassure an independent and affluent man that a dwelling with style and taste would ensure a happy bachelor life and facilitate intimacy. My photographs and collages add complexity to this portrait by framing this unique space as a stage where an unmarried man encircled by his lusty decor acted to entrance a woman.

The academic study of religion has for too long laboured under a flawed understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion. Any narrative of the displacement of religion by a universal and secularising modernity fails to recognise the complexity of the historical and cultural realities. While modernity has demonstrably contributed to the erosion of certain forms of religion, there is a growing body of evidence, and new interpretations of existing evidence, which suggest that the interconnections between modernity and religion are far more complex than any simple opposition could account for. Indeed, modernity appears, in certain circumstances, to be capable of producing its own religious effects. This thesis seeks to answer what then becomes a fundamental question: what does it mean for the study of religion if we accept that modernity can generate the religious? New conceptual tools are needed to deal critically with the far-reaching consequences of embracing the true density of modernity. The study of religion can be greatly enhanced by one such concept: reenchantment. However, reenchantment, as an interpretive framework, must be carefully formulated. Reenchantment cannot be properly understood as a reversal of disenchantment, a conception this thesis will be calling thin reenchantment, but as an ongoing dialectic of reenchantment and rationalisation, which this thesis will be calling thick reenchantment. The formulation of a credible and useful concept of reenchantment can in turn be aided by the work of the philosopher and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard�s work is not itself an expression or example of reenchantment, but it demonstrates a remarkable congruence with the concept of thick reenchantment, as both interrogate dominant understandings of modernity in relationship to differing systems of value. The thesis is divided into two sections. The first, substantially longer, section presents in some detail thick reenchantment as an interpretive frame. Though it does not claim to offer any new evidence, the first chapter outlines the evidential background for the thesis, which adopts the concept of religious modernity, developed by sociologist Danièle Hervieu-Léger, as a way of framing this evidence. The second chapter develops the concept of reenchantment and the typology of thin and thick reenchantment in relation to the foundational work of Max Weber. The third chapter is an analysis and review of the extant multidisciplinary discourse on reenchantment. The fourth chapter, the theoretical core of the thesis, presents an innovative reading of Baudrillard�s considerable body of work. The second section elaborates on a further insight of the first - that text is a necessary element in the study of religious modernity - by offering detailed readings of the work of three contemporary authors - novelists Douglas Coupland and Chuck Palahniuk and filmmaker Tom Tykwer - as instantiations of the sorts of cultural artefacts that the conceptual framework of thick reenchantment means to explore. Though its claims remain conceptual and interpretive rather than evidential, normative, or explanatory, this thesis, interdisciplinary as it is, is intended as a contribution to a number of related fields, from the study of contemporary literature and film to the exploration of Baudrillard�s work, which the study of religion has to date largely neglected, to its detriment However, its primary purpose is to suggest new and fruitful ways to approach the study of religion in modernity.

The thesis presented here explores the relevance of the classical works of Emile Durkheim and George Herbert Mead to contemporary postmodern cultural critiques. Postmodern social theory specifically that of Richard Rorty and Jean Baudrillard have come to offer a type of social theory that challenges the notion of the social. This referential problem of the social becomes a striking attack on the epistemology of sociology, which purports to offer scientific knowledge about the human condition as a social process. The theoretical works of Durkheim and Mead especially their respective concepts of the "collective consciousness" and the "generalized other" are offered here as closely related articulations of the core sociological concept of "the social." It is argued that postmodernism, by postulating an excessively precarious social theory, falls short as a theory of society when juxtaposed to the classic sociologies of Durkheim and Mead. However, it is also noted that the transformation of the field of sociology from a primarily textual discourse to a quantitative enterprise increasingly exposes the field of sociology to uniquely postmodern critiques.

Mina Loy’s work explores the gaudiness of consumer culture in its spectacle, extravagance and underlying falsity. “Giovanni Franchi,” “Three Moments in Paris” and “Virgins Plus Curtains Minus Dots” question the perceptive powers and autonomy of Baudelaire’s flâneur when applied particularly to the modern female subject. Moreover, “Hot Cross Bum” explores the excess involved in consumer extravagance, while “Feminist Manifesto” uses that extravagance to re-appropriate advertising towards Loy’s own ends. Throughout, consumer culture is seen as a false veneer; ultimately, however, Loy admits the paradoxical reality of this false consumer culture, and its real implications on modern life in “On Third Avenue” and “Mass Production on 14th Street.” Consequently, Loy gives a nuanced and sophisticated critique and exploration of consumer culture, and can be connected to theorists of spectacle like Guy Debord, of advertising like T.J. Jackson Lears, and to Baudrillard’s hyperreality.