Taking the '70s and '80s essays on North American culture by French sociologist Jean Baudrillard (America and Simulacra and Simulation) and Italian semiotician Umberto Eco (Faith in Fakes) as a starting point, this course aims at discussing the concepts of simulacra, simulation, and hyperreality. We will consider the artistic, socio-cultural and political effects of these concepts in a range of material and mediatic environments, as well as working towards better understanding the infiltration of the virtual, the false likeness, the imaginary, and the fake into the “real.” To do so, we will read transatlantic travel accounts and theoretical essays (Deleuze, Marin, etc.), analyze films (The Matrix, Westworld), fiction (The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares, The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick), and places (Disneyland, the wax museum, the Getty Villa).
Liliane EHRHART
Atelier
English
Autumn 2021-2022
Students in this seminar are expected to read 50 to 80 pages per class session, watch the films assigned, contribute to regular analyses of texts and films, and commit to the seminar.
Assignments include weekly short responses to course material, one short presentation, and a final project.
30% Weekly short responses,
10% Commitment and Active Participation
20% 1 Oral Responses (individually or in small groups)
40% Final Project (on the topic of your choice)
Text Excerpts (Available on Moodle)
Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,1994) 978-0472065219