ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relation between postmodernism and feminist aesthetics by addressing the work of Jean Baudrillard and Judith Butler. It demonstrates the ways in which the philosophical model expounded in Simulations would undermine the very possibility of a feminist aesthetic by focusing on the accounts of signification and power. The chapter argues that Butler offers a way out of Baudrillard's nihilism in that her sophisticated analysis of the generative nature of power structures in Bodies That Matter can be seen to underpin more complex models of signification, subjectivity and social relations. It offers an analysis of each theorist's philosophical position before drawing attention to its aesthetic implications. The chapter ensures that the differences between their deployments of similar arguments are made clear. It also demonstrates the ways in which this model of re/reading would work by offering an analysis of Gus van Sant's film To Die For.
