In 1981 Jean Baudrillard publishes Simulacra and Simulation: the image no longer represents a reality but replaces it, and the map precedes the territory. Baudrillard's hyperreal, sharpened through the decade's media politics, becomes the movement's most quoted diagnosis of the image-saturated world.
Tagged: Postmodernism
The Event
- Date
- 1981 (exact)
- Era
- The Naming; Standard periodization of postmodern history
- Location
- Paris; today Paris, France
- Traditions
- Postmodernism
- Streams
- Postmodernism
- Key figures
- Jean Baudrillard
- Key texts
- Simulacra and Simulation
Primary Sources
- Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacres et simulation. Paris: Galilée, 1981.
Secondary Sources
- Bertens, Hans. The Idea of the Postmodern: A History. London: Routledge, 1995.
- Hassan, Ihab. The Postmodern Turn. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1987.
- Hutcheon, Linda. A Poetics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 1988.
Provenance: HIST-1445; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
Postmodernism
Postmodernism doubts every grand story that claims to explain everything; it treats truth as shaped by language, culture, and power rather than simply discovered.