ABSTRACT
Postmodernism takes the image world far more seriously, arguing that the world of images itself not only constitutes reality, but is as "real" as anything else. This chapter discusses various debates surrounding the postmodern tradition. It focuses on the work of Jean Francois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard, who while jointly exercising considerable influence over the development of postmodernism also focus on substantively different dimensions of social life. Lyotard offers one of the most fundamental criticisms of the modern scientific mindset and then anticipates an optimistic postmodern future that would be characterized predominantly by a fragmentation and incommensurability of knowledge systems. Baudrillard belongs much more to the critical camp of the postmodern tradition—focusing on the darker side of consumption and the unprecedented commodification of the human lived experience. Baudrillard's central argument is that postmodern culture and society are defined by technologies of reproduction and replication—where exact copies of pictures, songs, and even experiences are made possible by multiple sophisticated technologies.
