POSTMODERNISM - BAUDRILLARD

Postmodernism is the idea that society has moved beyond modernism – either modernism in art and culture (early 20th century) or modernism in the sense of a belief in progress, which dates back much further.

Baudrillard argued that, as modern societies were organised around production of goods, postmodern society is organised around ‘simulation’ – the play of images and signs.

Previously important social distinctions suffer ‘implosion’ as differences of gender, class, politics and culture dissolve in a world of simulation in which individuals construct their identities.

The new world of ‘hyperreality’ – media simulations, for example, Disneyland and amusement parks, malls and consumer fantasy lands – is more real than the ‘real’, and controls how we think and behave.