Jean Baudrillard 1929-2007

I’ve not read anything close to all of Jean Baudrillard‘s considerable oeuvre, but I find it nearly impossible to teach almost any course without referring at some point to his work, in particular his notions of the simulacra and hyperreality. Still feeling like a stranger in a strange land, I also find his various looks at the USA to be especially compelling.

The news of his death yesterday saddened me, as it’s rare that we find such an original thinker, someone whose work is truly, as Le Figaro referred to it in their headline about his death, “inclassable.”