Sigmund Freud

Annotation Routledge Critical Thinkers is a new series for readers who need an accessible introduction to the key figures in contemporary critical thought. The books provide crucial orientation for further study and equip readers to engage with each theorist's original texts. Each Routledge Critical Thinkers volume will place its subject in his or her historical and intellectual contexts, and explain: -- Why he or she is important-- What motivated his or her work-- What his or her key ideas were-- Who and what influenced the thinker-- Who and what the thinker has influenced-- What to read next, and why. Featuring extensively annotated guides to further reading, these essential guides are the first point of reference for anyone wishing to investigate the work of the important critical thinkers of our time. Jean Baudrillard is one of the most famous and controversial of writers on postmodernism. But what are his key ideas? Where did they come from and why are they important? This book offers a beginner's guide to Baudrillard's thought, including his views on technology, primitivism, reworking Marxism, simulation and the hyperreal, and America and postmodernism. Richard Lane places Baudrillard's ideas in the contexts of French and postmodern thought and examines the ongoing impact of his work. Concluding with an extensively annotated bibliography of the thinker's own texts, this is the perfect companion for any student approaching the work of Jean Baudrillard.