Overview

Jean Baudrillard, a French social theorist and critic often associated with postmodernism, has been studied as sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. In Jean Baudrillard: The Rhetoric of Symbolic Exchange, Brian Gogan establishes him as a rhetorician, demonstrating how the histories, traditions, and practices of rhetoric prove central to his use of language. In addition to Baudrillard’s standard works, Gogan examines many of the scholar’s lesser-known writings that have never been analyzed by rhetoricians, and this more comprehensive approach presents fresh perspectives on Baudrillard’s work as a whole. Gogan examines both the theorist himself and his rhetoric, combining these two lines of inquiry in ways that allow for provocative insights. The first part of the book explains Baudrillard’s theory as compatible with the histories and traditions of rhetoric, outlining his novel understanding of rhetorical invention as involving thought, discourse, and perception. The four chapters that constitute part one each conclude with an “Illustration” section that applies Baudrillard’s theory to Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Part two includes an additional four chapters, each of which evaluates Baudrillard’s work in terms of a perception of him – as an aphorist, an illusionist, an ignoramus, and an ironist. These chapters cover the performative nature of his rhetorical theory; illusion in Plato, Aristotle, and Baudrillard’s own work; a disagreement with Susan Sontag and its basis in differing approaches to signification; and the importance of irony to rhetorical theory. A biographical sketch and a critical review of the literature on Baudrillard and rhetoric round out the study.,br>Jean Baudrillard: The Rhetoric of Symbolic Exchange makes the French theorist’s complex concepts understandable and relates them to the work of important thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, Ferdinand de Saussure, Hannah Arendt, and Kenneth Burke, providing a thorough and accessible introduction to Baudrillard’s ideas.

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9780809336258

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Baudrillard's work is both highly rhetorical and quite relevant to the study of rhetoric, yet his dozens of books have been generally ignored by rhetorical scholars. Gogan remedies this gap, treating Baudrillard's complete corpus within the cross-disciplinary framework of rhetoric. --Bruce McComiskey, author, Dialectical Rhetoric In an age of alternative facts and shifting political realities, the public and the academy need to understand Baudrillard's work more than ever. Gogan gives us a useful reading and critique of this important body of scholarship. -- Barry Brummett, editor, The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics Rhetoric and composition should disappear as a discipline. Jean Baudrillard seductively suggests such, and Brian Gogan passes this seductive message into our ears. How will rhetoric be figured, transformatively, through the trope of metamorphosis? When an ear is given to radical alterity and ambivalence? That is a disappearing act I want to witness. --Michelle Ballif, editor, Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric

Baudrillard's work is both highly rhetorical and quite relevant to the study of rhetoric, yet his dozens of books have been generally ignored by rhetorical scholars. Gogan remedies this gap, treating Baudrillard's complete corpus within the cross-disciplinary framework of rhetoric. --Bruce McComiskey, author, Dialectical Rhetoric In an age of alternative facts and shifting political realities, the public and the academy need to understand Baudrillard's work more than ever. Gogan gives us a useful reading and critique of this important body of scholarship. -- Barry Brummett, editor, The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics Rhetoric and composition should disappear as a discipline. Jean Baudrillard seductively suggests such, and Brian Gogan passes this seductive message into our ears. How will rhetoric be figured, transformatively, through the trope of metamorphosis? When an ear is given to radical alterity and ambivalence? That is a disappearing act I want to witness. --Michelle Ballif, editor, Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric

Baudrillard's work is both highly rhetorical and quite relevant to the study of rhetoric, yet his dozens of books have been generally ignored by rhetorical scholars. Gogan remedies this gap, treating Baudrillard's complete corpus within the cross-disciplinary framework of rhetoric. --Bruce McComiskey, author, Dialectical Rhetoric In an age of alternative facts and shifting political realities, the public and the academy need to understand Baudrillard's work more than ever. Gogan gives us a useful reading and critique of this important body of scholarship. -- Barry Brummett, editor, The Politics of Style and the Style of Politics Rhetoric and composition should disappear as a discipline. Jean Baudrillard seductively suggests such, and Brian Gogan passes this seductive message into our ears. How will rhetoric be figured, transformatively, through the trope of metamorphosis? When an ear is given to radical alterity and ambivalence? That is a disappearing act I want to witness. --Michelle Ballif, editor, Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric Professor Gogan deftly examines both the theorist and his rhetoric, combining these two lines of inquiry in ways that allow for provocative insights. A biographical sketch and a critical review of the literature on Baudrillard and rhetoric round out the study. Professor Gogan makes the French theorist's complex concepts understandable and relates them to the work of important thinkers, providing a thorough and accessible introduction to Baudrillard's ideas.---Able Greenspan, Midwest Book Review

Author Information

Brian Gogan is an associate professor of rhetoric and writing studies in the department of English at Western Michigan University. His articles have appeared in College Composition and Communication, Rhetoric Review, and the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies.

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