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The phenomenon of Citayam Fashion Week has symbolically influenced the way lower-class youth dress in central Jakarta. What was once an urban area in Sudirman has transformed into a fashion arena after videos of young people sporting distinctive clothing styles went viral. More than just a social gathering, this occurrence has attracted significant attention on social media, showcasing unique fashion expressions. However, this spontaneous and instantaneous trend has sparked a wide range of responses, with opinions varying from viewing it as a creative expression to considering it counterproductive. This study employs Jean Baudrillard’s theory as its formal framework in qualitative analysis, with Citayam Fashion Week serving as the material object of inquiry. The findings reveal the symbolic imagery that influences societal perceptions through creative fashion expressions and highlights the potential negative impacts on society, particularly among contemporary youth.

The narratives around devadasi are historically constructed to glorify the dedication of young girls as dancers to various temples across India. Traditionally, a devadasi assumed a pivotal role in executing significant rites and festivities within temple precincts, thereby representing an indispensable contributor to the cultural milieu inherent to these sacred edifices. This side of the devadasi legacy is quite popular and known even in the present times, but a discreet silence prevails about the flip side of this picture, a side that is characterised by systemic oppression, exploitation, and enduring bondage, constituting a narrative often hushed up. The present paper investigates the profoundly complex and concealed aspects of the devadasi tradition through a study of narratives by Gogu Shyamala, William Darlymple and Sudha Murthy using a post-truth lens and Baudrillardâs âsimulacraâ to deconstruct the coordinated distortion/asymmetry of/in knowledge/reality of devadasi.

The narratives around devadasi are historically constructed to glorify the dedication of young girls as dancers to various temples across India. Traditionally, a devadasi assumed a pivotal role in executing significant rites and festivities within temple precincts, thereby representing an indispensable contributor to the cultural milieu inherent to these sacred edifices. This side of the devadasi legacy is quite popular and known even in the present times, but a discreet silence prevails about the flip side of this picture, a side that is characterised by systemic oppression, exploitation, and enduring bondage, constituting a narrative often hushed up. The present paper investigates the profoundly complex and concealed aspects of the devadasi tradition through a study of narratives by Gogu Shyamala, William Darlymple and Sudha Murthy using a post-truth lens and Baudrillard's 'simulacra' to deconstruct the coordinated distortion/asymmetry of/in knowledge/reality of devadasi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: During the 1990s, German literature saw an influx of writers who had lived through the East German regime. These authors reflected the events that led up to the Berlin Wall’s fall and Germany’s reunification. Wolfgang Hilbig’s novel, “I”, is a prominent example of these works, called “turning literature”. This fiction depicts the absurdities of life under a fading ideology and the alienation of power institutions from social developments. The present article first examines historical context and the role of literature in East Germany to provide a deeper understanding of the themes and plot of the novel “I”. Then, it analyzes the concept of “simulacra”, which refers to the disconnection of signs from reality in modern social relations according to French sociologist Jean Baudrillard’s theories. The article further criticizes Hilbig’s literary interpretation of this concept and the various manifestations of “simulacra” in the narrative layers of “I”. Background of the Study: The novel “I” was published in 1993 and has since been translated into multiple languages, receiving praise from literary circles. However, it has yet to be researched in the Persian language. German-speaking critics have referenced Wolfgang Hilbig’s works while critiquing contemporary German literature. The present article cites some of those critiques. One significant source is a collection of articles titled “Two Separate Areas of Literature. German Literature of the 1990s in the East and the West” (2000) published in the literary journal Text and Criticism, which includes a section dedicated to “I”. Moreover, Helmut Luger conducted a detailed study in 2010, focusing on themes such as “alienation, loss of reality, and simulation” in Hilbig’s novels and analyzing their narrative structure and linguistic characteristics. Methodology: The novel “I”, which Wolfgang Hilbig started writing before the fall of the Berlin Wall, presents various interpretations of the concept of “simulacra” and its representations in the discourse of power. This concept in the semiotic debates of the 1980s indicated the remoteness of signs from their origin. However, philosophers and thinkers like Jean Baudrillard and Gilles Deleuze have different interpretations of this concept. The present article reviews and evaluates the opinions of various theorists on the concept of “simulacra”. It assesses which philosophical and sociological theories align with the works of Hilbig and also examines how applying this concept to the literary text expands its meaning beyond the frameworks of these theorists. Conclusion: In this article, we reviewed the history and thematic characteristics of “turning literature” and examined one of the essential elements of the novel, i.e., “simulacra”. We found that this concept, which Jean Baudrillard presented to represent modern social relations in the digital age, has a different meaning in Wolfgang Hilbig’s works. Simulacra in “I” is manifested in the context of a pervasive disciplinary system or a “hyperreality” whose ultimate goal is to consolidate power relations. This concept primarily refers to the simulation of ideas and actions resulting from imposing ideological illusions on society. These ideas and actions have become outdated and ineffective models on the verge of the collapse of Eastern Bloc systems. Although Baudrillard and Hilbig consider different social contexts, convergences can also be observed in their interpretations of the concept of “simulacra”. Both philosophers and writers, whether in the field of theorizing or in the scope of the literary text, aim to critique stagnant and fragmented social relations that are far away from reality and reproduce previous patterns in an automated way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road (2006) and Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), grapple with the choice of suicide versus struggle when meaning is exposed as socially fabricated. McCarthy declares, “there is no god and we are his prophets”, a dismal idea if one is searching for external meaning but conversely an empowering permission to create. McCarthy juxtaposes a father who chooses to produce absurd meaning with a mother who rationally commits suicide. Using Jean Baudrillard’s philosophical lens to read The Road, forces the reader to walk through a world of simulacra where floating signifiers are detached from meaning. Combining The Road, Simulacra and Simulation, and The Myth of Sisyphus, exposes that living is irrational because the simulation we have incarcerated ourselves within is absurd; however, McCarthy shows that in embracing the artistic struggle of creating a personal construct we feel most alive.

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This article explores the semiotics of desire in Thomas Hardy's short story cycle A Group of Noble Dames (1891). In its first section, it briefly contextualises the collection in terms of design and critical reception. The following section, focused on a selection of three emblematic stories, reads Hardy's characters as embodiments of the 'impossible monsters' he mentioned in the first entry of his Literary Notes. This section, drawing on James Phelan's rhetorical theory of characters and Charles Fourier's The Passions of the Human Soul (1851), investigates the effects of certain mechanisms of desire (gaze, idealisation, fetishisation, reification, jealousy, vindication-torture) on the characters' mimetic and thematic attributes. Furthermore, it points out how the characters' pathemic conditions and actions are often driven by bovaristic obsessions and mediated desires that originate in sociocultural microcosms pervaded by rigid social conventions and conformism. In some cases, these mediated passions are triggered by artistic and literary objects such as statues, paintings, and works of literature that function as simulacra of amorous desire. A final section summarises the main points discussed in the article and provides insights for further reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This literature review probes the intersection of Jean Baudrillard's concept of simulacra with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated art. Specifically, it delves into how generative AI, particularly Creative Adversarial Networks (CANs), extends Baudrillard's theories by producing art that blurs the lines between the real and the simulated. This paper introduces the concept of generative hyperreality, a novel stage in the evolution of simulacra where AI art autonomously creates new realities, challenging traditional notions of creativity, authorship, and authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread metamorphic imagery of the ancients responded to a pattern of civilisation: metamorphosis was something that everyone could experience in the world and which, precisely because it was linked to something real, could be the subject of dreamlike fantasy. As an ‘everyday’ experience, metamorphosis also acquired its own everydayness in the dreamlike imagination. Our short note examines three dream narratives: the dream of Astiage in Erodotus, the metamorphic dreams of Artemidorus Daldianus, and finally the fourth dream of the Martyr Perpetua in her hagiography. In these dream narratives we find symbolism common to the oneiromantic tradition of the Ancient Near East and Pharaonic Egypt.

This study explores the intricate dynamics of visual communication in the context of AIgenerated visuals. The question of picture interpretation, starting with the subjective interpretation of images, contextual constraints, and cultural influences of individuals that may affect the perception of an image, is at the heart of this work. The study examines a range of viewpoints on the perception of pictures from writers including Roland Barthes, John Berger, Susan Sontag, and Jean Baudrillard in order to investigate these concerns. The paper also explores the significance of AI-generated graphics, as well as Jean Baudrillard's simulacra notion. It draws attention to how simulacra, or representations without a true relationship to reality, are embodied by AI-generated visuals. In the context of AI-generated imagery, Baudrillard's phases of the image are analyzed, indicating the separation from reality and the formation of pure simulacra. The importance of critically engaging with images becomes evident, as viewers' personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and the intricate complexities of visual media intertwine to shape meaning. The insights derived from this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the multi-faceted nature of visual communication in contemporary society, emphasizing the need for a nuanced and critical approach to the interpretation of visual content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buttonscarves menjadi brand fashion jilbab yang menargetkan perempuan muslim dengan kelas sosial menengah ke atas sebagai konsumennya. Melalui akun Instagram @buttonscarves, produsen fashion jilbab ini berupaya menarik perhatian konsumen dengan menciptakan beragam narasi sehingga terciptanya realitas-realitas tertentu. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menelaah bagaimana realitas perempuan muslim dan jilbab diciptakan dalam narasi Buttonscarves di akun Instagram @buttonscarves. Peneliti juga menggunakan sudut pandang Baudrillard tentang Simulakra dan Hiperrealitas. Peneliti menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dan metode analisis semiotika Jean Barudrillard terhadap sembilan teks berupa video dan foto yang ada di akun tersebut di sepanjang tahun 2022. Temuan dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa Instagram @buttonscarves menciptakan simulasi realitas terhadap perempuan Muslim berjilbab. Narasi simulakra dalam Instagram @buttonscarves menunjukkan hiperrealitas nilai- nilai perempuan Muslim dan jilbab yang dapat membius khalayak perempuan Muslim. Sehingga jilbab tidak lagi dipandang dari nilai-nilai aslinya, namun menjadi realitas simulakrum murni dari citra yang diciptakan oleh Buttonscarves. Buttonscarves is a hijab fashion brand that targets Muslim women belonging to the middle and upper social classes. Through the Instagram account @buttonscarves, this hijab fashion producer attracted consumers’ attention by constructing narratives that shape distinct realities. This study delves into how the Buttonscarves’ narratives on the @buttonscarves create the reality of Muslim women and the headscarf. In analyzing this phenomenon, Baudrillard's concepts of Simulacra and Hyperreality serve as theoretical underpinnings. Employing a qualitative approach, this research adopts the Jean Baudrillard Semiotics Analysis method to analyze nine texts, encompassing videos and photos posted throughout 2022. The study's findings shed light on the Instagram account’s ability to engender a simulated reality of Muslim women wearing headscarves. Simulakra's narrative on Instagram @buttonscarves shows the hyperreality of Muslim women's values and the headscarf that can anesthetize Muslim women audiences. Consequently, the headscarf is no longer seen from its original values but becomes a pure simulacrum reality of the image created by Buttonscarves.

This paper focuses on the recent trends in digital implementation technology and its relationship with cultural heritage restoration. Cultural heritage consists of tangible and intangible elements, including monuments and folklore cultural assets. The utilization of digital restoration and visualization techniques offers boundless possibilities beyond mere technical reproduction, shedding new light on the historical characteristics and values of humanity. Such research is regarded as an essential output that captures the profound social, cultural, and economic significance of cultural heritage. Digital restoration, reflecting Jean Baudrillard's concept of 'Simulacra,' serves as a crucial tool to reinterpret past civilizations based on historical evidence for the public. Through this process, profound insights can be gained from various fields such as society, economy, art, religion, and lifestyle. This approach signifies that the digital restoration transcends its mere technical aspect and helps in understanding its academic significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In F. Nietzsche’s philosophical thought, there is a profound link between European Nihilism and the task of modern philosophy to produce new Platos. The current article demonstrates how G. Deleuze uses the Nietzschean term Unzeitgemäβ – (Untimely – Unfashionable) in his attempt to overturn nihilistic Platonism. Deleuze enriches the Stoic paradox of [non-] when seeking an image of thought without image for the sake of what he calls the “untimely creative intensity,” an affirmative power in immanence. I argue that Deleuze reads the Stoic [non-] using the lens of the Nietzschean untimely to construct the technique of reversibility in his philosophical plane. Following the cartography of Deleuze’s philosophical route, I first examine two problems caused by Platonic nihilism: the destruction of the form in anonymity and the noiseless transmutation of copies into simulacra. Second, I discuss Deleuze’s two types of nihilism: (i) the cruciform structure of the Platonic and (ii) the use of the paradox of the [non-] upon the surface by Stoics. Finally, I comment on Deleuzian nihilism as the birthplace of creation.

Simply put, hyperreality is used to denote something that does not yet exist in the sense of being undeniably demonstrable. According to Jean Baudrillard in Simulacra and Simulation (1981), hyperreality is a state where reality has been replaced by simulacra, meaning that what is real and what is fictional is indistinguishable. Equally, hyperreality starts as soon as one replaces the question of ‘if’ by ‘when’. Therein, in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, it becomes quite difficult to establish whether or not Grace Marks is innocent, pure and wrongly accused of the horrible murders of her employer Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery. Likewise, Grace's memory (which, strangely enough, is referred to in terms of its absence rather than its presence since she is supposedly suffering from amnesia) is some sort of virtual reality, an entire world in itself, where Grace can appear to be anything she wants to be. By constantly overlapping the Canadian landscape, Grace’s subconscious enables a window into the world within, one of the past, the present and the future, some sort of interface between three different psychological entities with their corresponding and symbolic representations of the landscape. The present paper looks into the novel from behind the lens of the Canadian landscape (although scarce in occurrences) as a metonymy of hyperreal mindscapes: doubly displaced both geographically (she is an Irish immigrant), and mentally (she seems to be manifesting a form of multiple personality disorder), Grace simultaneously exists in hyperreal mindscapes, mimicking and replicating, stating and questioning, challenging readers who are left adrift in a textual world where the boundaries between reality and representation become blurred.

QAnon is an online conspiracy movement centred on cryptic posts published by an unknown figure referred to as “Q.” Its anti-hierarchical framework and deployment of an unknown leader can be understood as a substantial departure from other 21st-century populisms that are sustained by the celebrity relationship between a leader (often aspiring to or gaining political office) and its followers (constituted in community through consumption of the leaders’ social media posts). Reflecting on contemporary debates and insights within cultural studies and digital communication literature, this article investigates some of the ways in which the spectral leadership of Q presents challenges for understanding and apprehending populist movements. In light of QAnon, there is an emerging need to make sense of populisms that are built on mythical or anonymous characters rather than on identifiable human actors in leadership roles. We begin by discussing the role of key practices of contemporary populist leadership and contrast these with justice-based populisms that are community-led without the figure of an identifiable leader. We argue that, as a populist movement, QAnon fits neither of these frameworks and, instead, has drawn on the affordances of digital media and its intersections with postmodern hyperreality to produce a new formation of populist movement today. Arguing that Q is the simulacra of a leader, we theorise the ways in which QAnon fosters affiliation and action from its adherents who, themselves, take on the role of saviour-leader.

Jean Baudrillard the postmodern social theorist adopted a philosophical approach for explanation of the contemporary world. Baudrillard refers to the current state of affairs in the world as “Hyperreality” and believes that today the simulacra are more real than the reality itself. Art and cinema have also turned into tools of simulation and Baudrillard targets them with his penetrating critiques. The present essay is an effort to discuss Baudrillard’s solution for cinema’s survival. Among the achievements of the current essay, one can mention the fact that according to Baudrillard, contemporary cinema is so immersed in the simulacrum that it has become a means for simulation. Baudrillard is so pessimistic that it does not seem that in his view, there would be a path in the postmodern world to escape the simulacra. As a result, cinema does not also have any path to avoid it. The solutions suggested by the authors are basically focused on taking advantage of the simulation itself; of course, this simulation is intended to expose the simulacra to which we are referring as “simulating the simulacra”. Consequently, in this essay – through continuous references to Baudrillard’s ideas – it becomes evident that “simulating the simulacra” can occur through excessive insistence on simulation. Among the operational approaches that can assist it, one would refer to frequent use of digital special effects or “doubled simulation” toward the exposition of cinema’s simulation.

Drawing upon mass communication theories, with special emphasis on Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacra and simulacrum, we will examine distortion of infor- mation practices in George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) and in the American TV miniseries The Loudest Voice (2019). Even though there is nearly a century between both works, socio-politically speaking, the control of information dissemination is equally important in both narrative products: in the maintaining of the status quo in an authoritarian system in 1984 and in the process of undermining the current US democratic system in The Loudest Voice. With this, we will argue that these literary and audiovisual texts are key for citizens to develop critical thinking skills and to question their worldviews, or, in Orwell’s own words, to exercise an uncommon common sense, which entails independence of thought and integrity of mind.

Englishness has become a focal point of research and exploration, placing itself at the heart of debates within contemporary literary criticism. In this article, I will be taking Julian Barnes‘ England, England 1999 as a case study to highlight the workings of the aspects of authenticity and simulacra by attempting to break down the mechanisms that contribute to the rebranding of national identity as well as presenting an account of postmodern reflections of the novel. I also try to highlight the obvious influence of the author by French elements in terms of form and technique. My research touches upon the unreliability of memory, historical commodification and narrative techniques of perspectivation and characterisation amongst others, in order to showcase how Barnes manages through the amalgamation of particular techniques to denounce the artificiality of authenticity as a whole, and in focus, that of Englishness.

The article is a book review on “Ethnography of Bogus. Who and how writes customized academic essays in Russia” by A. Davydov and P. Abramov (Moscow: Khamovniki Foundation for Social Research: Common Place, 2021, 176 p.). This book describes the practices of contract cheating in Russian higher education as an established social institution involving undergraduate and graduate students. “Ethnography of Bogus” presents the faculty staff only as a resource for the market of ghostwriting: an explicit resource when teachers of higher education become ghostwriters, or an implicit resource, when formalist assessment mechanisms of student work contribute to the development of ghostwriting practices. The description of ghostwriting practices in the study reveals the decline of the concept of research advisor for undergraduate and graduate students, due to the precarity of teachers in higher education. The decline is incited by mass student entry policy and efficient management mechanisms of higher education institutions. As a result, the students who turn to contract cheating in a regular manner do not develop professional and academic skills appropriate to an undergraduate or graduate degree. The students develop their soft skills required in interactions with ghost-writers when they negotiate the terms of contract cheating as customers of writing services.

The aim of this article is to dissect the hyperreality side of the online video game Free Fire. Hyperreality can be seen from the war simulations contained in the course of the game, the weapons used, the selected characters that players can use, to the virtual world that becomes the battle arena. This article uses Jean Baudrillard's hyperreality concept which can show the sides of the game that make up the hyperreality conditions of the players, so that players can no longer distinguish between reality and the artificial. With a qualitative approach, this article explores and understands the meaning in the game by interpreting a collection of texts and then analyzing it by prioritizing the human side. The conclusion of this study shows that players are trapped in a world that no longer refers to a real prototype as usual simulations do. The simulacra contained in the game is in the form of a gameplay that does not refer to real warfare, character and weapon selection, team strategy as a productive form of simulacra, and the battle arena as a natural form of simulacra. The hyperreality in the form of war simulacra and scenes of violence is getting stronger with the interaction feature between players and the proliferation of e-sports competition ecosystems in Indonesia that offer big prizes.

Electronic communication of the Christian message—online preaching—raises distinct theological challenges. Notwithstanding the undeniable convenience and unlimited geographical reach of "virtual church", electronic media have the potential to separate preacher from congregants, congregants from one another, and—potentially of greatest concern—the church from God, even while appearing to accomplish the opposite. Communication theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) argues provocatively that virtual representation is at the cost of authentic human identity (in which case it is inimical to community), while French sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard (1929–2007) warns of substituting representation for reality, especially in matters of theology and the identity of God. The paradigm of Jesus' Incarnation, by contrast, mandates un-mediated divine-human and human-to-human communication, requiring engagement between persons themselves rather than their avatars or provisional simulacra. With respect to electronically mediated communication itself, acknowledging divine initiative in the formation of identity (as a feature of soteriology) and of understanding (under the category of revelation) countermands the more dehumanizing and anti-theological influences that McLuhan and Baudrillard both identify, encouraging direct engagement with God in the person of the Holy Spirit rather than resorting to technological mediation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a philosophical reflection of the crisis of democracy. Its central research focus is on what is referred to as “the world of artificial images and the lost truth” (or phantasmagoria), where the West European society experiences a sequence of distorted perceptions of reality (simulacra) broken down between various social movements, and the effect of those on the conflict-settling function of democracy, which less and less observable in contemporary societies of Western Europe. Starting from this very brief description, the article elaborates the issue of lost truth and meaning as well as the resurrection of myth based on a multitude of sub-realities or simulacra, which deprive democracy of its conflict settling mechanism and prevent social groups/movements in an atomized society from discursive consensus building.

The aim of the present paper is to trace the Nachleben of the logics characterizing the Adamic episode within the fictional reflection on human simulacra. In fact, Judeo-Christian ‘exclusive monotheism’ is based on the strict ontological differentiation of God, the unique Creator, from the World, as his Creation. Such a conception of monotheism is, as Jan Assmann pointed out, strictly connected to a repressive exercise of violence and to God’s opposition against every possible form of ontological rivalry. In the Genesis, Yahweh turns this law machinery even against his simulacra, the creatures made «in his own image»: Adam and Eve are removed from Eden and condemned to mortality only as a result of their attempt to become «like God, knowing good and evil». By means of a brief analysis of some exemplary literary cases, an attempt will be made to show how the fear and violence exercised by man towards his simulacra are deeply linked to a secular revival of the theological-juridical complex intertwined with the Adamic model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

«Fantasy is like jam: you have to spread it on a solid slice of bread»: this observation by Calvino is in line with all those narratives based on the construction of imaginary worlds, nonexistent or invisible cities, landscape dreams, and simulacra. In this regard, American Dreams (1974) by Carey, and England, England (1998) by Barnes seem extremely interesting. In both texts, it is a question of being able to invent lies capable of convincing readers, of substituting real places with false but plausible and narratively credible spaces. In the first case, the story showcases a point of conjunction between postmodern and postcolonial views thanks to Carey’s way of dealing with the theme of simulation. In the second case, the protagonist’s theme park aims to encompass all the life-size tourist and cultural attractions across England, appropriately selected through a survey. This is an “England, England”, a replica truer than the truth to the point of replacing the original, which is doomed to an irreversible decline, in a perfect depiction of the supermodernity theorised by Augé. Both the theme park and the model town reproduce the ideal space of those who, too accustomed to images, no longer know how to appreciate reality or, differently put, the postmodern world. We could call this situation the “Truman Show effect”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the opposition posed by Deleuze between the copy-icon and the simulacrum, the article analyzes some contemporary works which present us with hybrid figures of artificial beings as copies or “continuations” of human beings: the Black Mirror episode Be Right Back and the novels Permutation City by Greg Evan and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. The issue under scrutiny is whether the recent instability or lability of the distinction between Copy and Simulacrum in fictional imagination is a sign of an ongoing change in the notion of identity: in other words, whether in the era of total digital mediation it is still possible to distinguish between authentic and simulated, natural and artificial entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, science began to investigate the reproducibility of the human being, both biologically (via experiments on electricity, Galvani and Volta) and mechanically (automata, animated dolls). Literature reflects this idea. German literature from the nineteenth century offers many examples of artificial creatures, generally seen as inferior to humans: this inferiority is linked to the fact that they seem to lack an essential part, consisting in something immaterial, namely the soul. Our hypothesis, however, is that behind these imperfect simulacra lies the idea of a new, different perfection. Our specific focus will be on a text by Heinrich Heine, “Florentinische Nächte“. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present paper is to consider Remades (posthuman figures who populate China Miéville’s “Bas-Lag trilogy”) as simulacra of their social milieu, highlighting the interconnection of power and economic systems which shapes the “remaking” process and ultimately the position of Remades in society. Two methodological approaches are applied to the analysis. The first draws from Halberstam, Livingston and Micali to account for the “posthumanity” of Remades, interpreting them as liminal figures who physically summarise various categories of inhabitants of the Bas-Lag. The second moves from Foucault’s reflections on the relation between power and punishment and on the centrality of the body in this relation to determine how these categories – power and punishment – work in the context of the specifically posthuman bodies of Remades. Combining these perspectives produces interesting results. First, it can account for the “otherness” of Remades on the level of their physical transformation (from “whole” bodies to Remades) as well as on the level of their social position (from citizens, to prisoners, to outcasts). In addition to this, by providing some key examples, the paper foregrounds that, if the dialectical relationship between Remades and society is overtly inscribed on their bodies, different societies are likely to alter them in different ways. As a result, a totalitarian structure will inflict marks that are not superimposable with those produced by an egalitarian one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson’s 2019 novel, is a mirror transposition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The novel adumbrates a posthuman or transhuman life to be lived «forever as brain emulation» thanks to artificial Intelligence. Scientist Victor Stein argues that we can develop our brain software through learning, including outsourcing to machines, until we learn to share the planet with «non-biological forms created by us». This delineates a world in which the cyborgification (the fusion of nature and culture/technology) is seen as inevitable and there is no need to ‘defend’ nature. With further lines of thought, my paper explores the metaphorical fields (parallel worlds, simulacra) and narrative devices (metalepsis, alternating montage, internal parallelism) that underpin this story. My point is that the attempted fusion of nature and technology, as theorised by technoscientists in Winterson’s story, only produces a modification in the attitude of some unaugmented humans towards other unaugmented humans, both living and dead. Finally, humans are not cyborgs, nor inforgs, nor full-blown transhumans but boundary creatures straddling alternative ontologies and often acting as less than humans, infrahumans or, like transsexual Ry Shelley, «inappropriate/d others». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is well known, the importance of instrumental music in the aesthetics of German Romanticism was accompanied, in the musical practice of the time, by a development of the construction technique of musical instruments. In literature, too, the interest in instrumental mechanics can be found in various authors, and is linked to the fascination/demonization of technology in general. Instruments are more and more often provided with a voice that competes with the human one, sometimes as an imitation, sometimes as a kind of surpassing and enhancement. Particularly in the works of E.T.A. Hoffmann, a writer whose musical skills excelled on the professional level, the instrument and the human voice (the latter understood as an immediate manifestation of the soul) became the object of a series of exchanges, mutations and substitutions capable of creating a dense interweaving between artifice (or illusionism) and what is presented as ‘natural’. Particularly interesting are the cases of the violin in the short story “Rat Krespel” and of the Unsichtbares Mädchen in the novel Kater Murr. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay focuses on Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise with the aim to understand its author’s reaction to the advent of the ‘civilization of appearance’. This analysis shows how DeLillo’s view is ambivalent: despite being indeed fascinated by the coming of the new world, he is still deeply interested in real-life events that can be concretely experienced in opposition to their representations and simulations. What strikes him most is individual death, namely a problem that cannot be subsumed within the symbolic order of the new society. In a certain sense, the novel depicts a ‘return of the repressed’ built on a disturbing ‘return of reality’. The novel oscillates between a sense of tragedy and a sense of irony (if not of the ridiculous). Therefore, on one side, it testifies to the arrival of what will be called ‘postmodernity’; on another side, it criticizes postmodernity by showing how its ideologists might be silly, trivial and grotesque. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the simulacral dimension in the representation of photographic portraits in late-nineteenth century English literature. Its first two sections focus on Hardy’s photography-related poetry and prose, and show how, in these texts, photographic portraits operate as a ghostly surrogate for an absent person and/or much-desired body. This fetishisation of photographic images, which Hardy shares with several other turn-of-the century poets and writers, is in tune with later theories of photography and simulacra, but also reflects contemporary cultural and aesthetic discourses related to technological innovations in the field of photography. The final section of the article argues that this ‘photographic’ simulacrum, which is often linked to amorous desire, may be viewed as a modern version of a long-established trope in Western literary culture, that is the internalised portrait of the beloved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

QAnon is an online conspiracy movement centred on cryptic posts published by an unknown figure referred to as "Q." Its anti-hierarchical framework and deployment of an unknown leader can be understood as a substantial departure from other 21st-century populisms that are sustained by the celebrity relationship between a leader (often aspiring to or gaining political office) and its followers (constituted in community through consumption of the leaders' social media posts). Reflecting on contemporary debates and insights within cultural studies and digital communication literature, this article investigates some of the ways in which the spectral leadership of Q presents challenges for understanding and apprehending populist movements. In light of QAnon, there is an emerging need to make sense of populisms that are built on mythical or anonymous characters rather than on identifiable human actors in leadership roles. We begin by discussing the role of key practices of contemporary populist leadership and contrast these with justice-based populisms that are community-led without the figure of an identifiable leader. We argue that, as a populist movement, QAnon fits neither of these frameworks and, instead, has drawn on the affordances of digital media and its intersections with postmodern hyperreality to produce a new formation of populist movement today. Arguing that Q is the simulacra of a leader, we theorise the ways in which QAnon fosters affiliation and action from its adherents who, themselves, take on the role of saviour-leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since advertising was introduced many centuries ago, women have been objectified and, in some cases, insulted or belittled. The second wave of feminists challenged society's definition of femininity, and society's insistence on equating men with “thought” and women with “nature” and “body.” This paper aims to investigate the question of women portrayal in Pakistani media with “Jean Baudrillard theory of Simulacra and Simulation”. It focuses on how media and writing are constantly affected by hyperreality. Films, commercials, news, web-based media, and so on address fake real factors with the goal that the current world can't understand reality and innovation. Content analysis was used to emphasize how sexist media constructs an unattainable or objective image of female beauty. This paper shows how personal achievements and accomplishments are only acceptable if they meet the criteria of unrealistic beauty standards. The idea of being “perfect” is reinforced through media but mostly women are suffering with anxiety, depression and the feeling of being insecure in their homes. The fear of being inferior and rejection make them vulnerable and less competitive in society which develops a sense of passiveness and low self-esteem. Sejak dunia periklanan diperkenalkan, perempuan telah menjadi objek, dan dalam beberapa kasus mereka direndahkan dan mengalami penolakan. Gelombang feminis telah menentang definisi feminitas dan desakan masyarakat untuk menyamakan laki-laki dengan ‘pikiran’ dan perempuan dengan ‘nature’ dan ‘body’. Artikel ini bermaksud untuk menyelidiki bagaimana proses penggambaran perempuan di media Pakistan melalui teori Simulacra dan Simulasi Jean Baudrillard. Tulisan ini juga berfokus pada bagaimana media secara terus-menerus dipengaruhi oleh hiperrealitas. Film, iklan, berita, media berbasis website, dan yang lainnya membahas realitas palsu dengan tujuan agar dunia saat ini tidak memahami realitas dan inovasi. Analisis Konten digunakan untuk menekankan bagaimana media seksis membangun citra kecantikan perempuan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bagaimana pencapaian pribadi hanya dapat diterima jika telah memenuhi standar kecantikan yang tidak realistis. Gagasan untuk menjadi perempuan “sempurna” diperkuat melalui media, namun pada kenyataannya para perempuan justru mengalami kecemasan, depresi, dan perasaan tidak aman. Inferioritas dan dan ketakutan akan penolakan membuat mereka rentan dan kurang kompetitif dalam masyarakat, yang kemudian berkembang menjadi sikap pasif dan memiliki harga diri yang rendah.

The aim of the present paper is to consider Remades (posthuman figures who populate China Miéville’s “Bas-Lag trilogy”) as simulacra of their social milieu, highlighting the interconnection of power and economic systems which shapes the “remaking” process and ultimately the position of Remades in society. Two methodological approaches are applied to the analysis. The first draws from Halberstam, Livingston and Micali to account for the “posthumanity” of Remades, interpreting them as liminal figures who physically summarise various categories of inhabitants of the Bas-Lag. The second moves from Foucault’s reflections on the relation between power and punishment and on the centrality of the body in this relation to determine how these categories – power and punishment – work in the context of the specifically posthuman bodies of Remades. Combining these perspectives produces interesting results. First, it can account for the “otherness” of Remades on the level of their physical transformation (from “whole” bodies to Remades) as well as on the level of their social position (from citizens, to prisoners, to outcasts). In addition to this, by providing some key examples, the paper foregrounds that, if the dialectical relationship between Remades and society is overtly inscribed on their bodies, different societies are likely to alter them in different ways. As a result, a totalitarian structure will inflict marks that are not superimposable with those produced by an egalitarian one.

Frankissstein: A Love Story, Jeanette Winterson's 2019 novel, is a mirror transposition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The novel adumbrates a posthuman or transhuman life to be lived “forever as brain emulation” (Winterson 2020, 104). What was traditionally known as the human being is now required to transcend biology through “better biology” (ibid. 113), i.e., Artificial Intelligence. Assuming that homo sapiens is not a special case, an ontology that transcends the human/nonhuman divide is proposed in Winterson’s story by scientist Victor Stein. He assumes that we can develop our brain software through learning, including outsourcing to machines, until we learn to share the planet with “non biological forms created by us” (ibid. 73). This delineates a utopian dimension in which the relationship between self, other and power is reworked so that as, in Donna Haraway’s words, there is “agency ...without defended subjects” (Haraway 1991, 3). Or, in other words, a world in which the cyborgification (the fusion of nature and culture/technology) is seen as inevitable and there is no need to ‘defend’ nature. With further lines of thought, my paper explores the metaphorical fields (parallel worlds, simulacra) and narrative devices (metalepsis, alternating montage, internal parallelism) that underpin this story. My point is that the attempted fusion of nature and technology, as theorised by techno-scientists in Winterson’s story, only produces a modification in the attitude of some unaugmented humans towards other unaugmented humans, both living and dead. Eventually humans are not cyborgs, nor inforgs, nor full-blown transhumans but boundary creatures straddling alternative ontologies and often acting as less than humans, infrahumans or, like transexual Ry Shelley, “inappropriate others” (Haraway 1992).

Tra fine Settecento e inizio Ottocento la scienza comincia a indagare la riproducibilità dell’essere umano, sia per via biologica (gli esperimenti sull’elettricità, Galvani e Volta), sia per via meccanica (gli automi, le bambole animate). Tale idea si riflette in letteratura. La letteratura tedesca dell’Ottocento presenta numerosi esempi di creatura artificiale e generale è l’idea che essa sia inferiore all’umano: inferiore, in quanto mancante di una parte essenziale, che si identifica con qualcosa di immateriale, ovvero l’anima. Questo intervento indaga queste manifestazioni, alla luce dell’ipotesi che, in realtà, dietro questi simulacri imperfetti si nasconda un’idea di nuova, diversa perfezione. In particolare ci concentreremo su un testo di Heinrich Heine, Florentinische Nächte.

The essay focuses on Don DeLillo’s novel White Noise with the aim to understand its author’s reaction to the advent of the ‘civilization of appearance’. This analysis shows how DeLillo’s view is ambivalent: despite being indeed fascinated by the coming of the new world, he still is deeply interested in real-life events that can be concretely experienced in opposition to their representations and simulations. What strikes him the most is individual death, namely a problem that cannot be subsumed within the symbolic order of new society. In a certain sense, the novel depicts a ‘return of the repressed’ built on a disturbing ‘return of reality’. The novel oscillates between a sense of tragedy and a sense of irony (if not of ridiculous). Therefore, from one side, it testifies the arrival of what will be called ‘postmodernity’; from another side, it criticizes postmodernity by showing how its ideologists are silly, trivial and grotesque.

Questo articolo indaga la dimensione simulacrale delle rappresentazioni di ritratti fotografici nella letteratura inglese del tardo Ottocento. Le prime due sezioni si concentrano sulle opere di Hardy legate alla fotografia e mostrano come in questi testi i ritratti fotografici svolgono la funzione di un surrogato spettrale di una persona assente e/o di un corpo oggetto del desiderio. Questa feticizzazione delle immagini fotografiche, che Hardy condivide con altri poeti e scrittori a cavallo tra fine Ottocento e primo Novecento, anticipa successive teorizzazioni sulla fotografia e il simulacro, ma riflette anche discorsi estetico-culturali dell'epoca connessi alle innovazioni tecnologiche nell'ambito della fotografia. L'ultima parte dell'articolo sostiene che questo simulacro 'fotografico', spesso associato al desiderio amoroso, può essere considerato una modernizzazione di un consolidato tropo della cultura letteraria Occidentale, il ritratto interiore dell'amato/a.

A partire dall'opposizione postulata da Deleuze tra la copia-icona e il simulacro, l'intervento esamina alcune opere contemporanee che ci presentano delle figure ibride di esseri artificiali, intesi come copie o "continuazioni" di esseri umani: l'episodio Be Right Back della serie Black Mirror, e i romanzi Permutation City di Greg Evan e Klara and the Sun di Kazuo Ishiguro. La questione che si cercherà di chiarire è se l'instabilità o labilità recente della distinzione tra Copia e Simulacro sia la spia di un cambiamento in corso nella nozione di identità: in altre parole, se nell'era della mediazione digitale totale abbia ancora senso distinguere tra autentico e simulato, naturale e artificiale.

Il rango assunto dalla musica strumentale nell’estetica del romanticismo tedesco si accompagna, come è noto, nella prassi musicale dell’epoca a un perfezionamento della tecnica di costruzione degli strumenti musicali. Anche in letteratura l’interesse per la meccanica strumentale si riscontra in diversi autori, collegandosi alla fascinazione/demonizzazione nei confronti della tecnologia in generale. Sempre più spesso agli strumenti viene attribuita una voce che si pone in concorrenza con la voce umana, ora come imitazione, ora come superamento e potenziamento. In particolare nell’opera di E. T. A. Hoffmann, lo scrittore che più di ogni altro dispone di competenze musicali professionali, strumento e voce umana (quest’ultima intesa come manifestazione immediata dell’anima) sono oggetto di una serie di scambi, mutazioni e sostituzioni che creano un fitto intreccio fra ciò che si presenta come ‘naturale’ e ciò che è artificio (o illusionismo). Interessanti in particolare i casi del violino nel racconto Rat Krespel e dell’Unsichtbares Mädchen nel romanzo Kater Murr.

«Fantasy is like jam: you have to spread it on a solid slice of bread»: this observation by Italo Calvino is perfectly in line with all those narratives that are based on the construction of imaginary worlds, nonexistent or invisible cities, landscape dreams, and simulacra. In this regard, a short story by the Australian writer Peter Carey, American Dreams (1974), and Julian Barnes’s novel England, England, (1998) seem extremely interesting. In both texts, it is a question of being able to invent lies capable of convincing readers, of substituting real places with false but plausible and narratively credible spaces. In the first case, the story showcases a point of conjunction between postmodern and postcolonial views thanks to Carey’s way of dealing with the theme of simulation. The text presents two dimensions of simulation: a postmodern field of simulacra in which all meaning implodes and about which nothing can be done, and a postcolonial field of representation in which simulation and performativity become the strategies of a cultural struggle. In the second case, the protagonist's theme park aims to encompass all the life-size tourist and cultural attractions across England, appropriately selected through a survey. This is not a miniature England, therefore, but an "England, England", a replica truer than the truth to the point of replacing the original, which is doomed to an irreversible decline, in a perfect depiction of the supermodernity theorised by Augè. Both the theme park and the model town reproduce the ideal space of those who, too accustomed to images, no longer know how to appreciate reality or, differently put, the postmodern world, reduced to a succession of empty images, entirely spectacularised. It is a world where things happen as in a dream. We could call this situation the Truman Show effect, referring to the famous 1998 film by Australian director Peter Weir.

The Judeo-Christian ‘exclusive monotheism’ is based on the strict ontological differentiation of God, the unique Creator, from the World, as his Creation. Such a conception of monotheism is, as Jan Assmann pointed out, strictly connected to a repressive exercise of violence and to God's opposition against every possible form of ontological rivalry. In the Genesis, Yahweh turns this law machinery even against his simulacra, the creatures made «in his own image»: Adam and Eve are removed from Eden and condemned to mortality only as a result of their attempt to become «like God, knowing good and evil». The aim of the present paper is to trace the Nachleben of this tradition within the fictional reflection on human simulacra. By means of a brief analysis of some exemplary literary cases, an attempt will be made to show how the fear and violence exercised by man towards his simulacra are deeply linked to a secular revival of the theological-juridical complex intertwined with the Adamic model.

Pandemi sürecinde Sağlık Bakanlığı tarafından hazırlanan “Koronavirüs Alacağımız TedbirlerdenGüçlü Değil” isimli kamu spotlarında, ünlü dizi karakterleri Ateş Hekimoğlu ve Ali Vefa kullanılmıştır.Gerçek ve başarılı pek çok doktorun aksine, birer temsil olan bu dizi karakterlerinin bakanlıktarafından kullanılması dikkat çekicidir. Toplumun içinde yaşadığı hiper-gerçeklik döneminde bugibi bir uygulamanın tercih edilmesi, simülasyonun gerçekten daha gerçek olduğunu göstermektedir.Ayrıca insan hayatını ilgilendiren en önemli unsurların bile temsiller aracılığı ile topluma ulaşacağınındüşünülmüş olması hem bir sorunsal, hem de içinde yaşadığımız “aşkın simülasyon evreni”nin kanıtıgibidir. Çalışma Baudrillard’ın simülasyon kuramı bağlamında bu sorunu ele alarak, öyküsel anlatıanalizi yöntemiyle söz konusu dizi karakterlerinin kamu spotlarında kullanımının arkasında yatanmotivasyonu karakter temsillerinin temel özellikleri doğrultusunda incelemeyi konu edinmektedir. Sözkonusu doktor temsilleri “olmazı olur eden, olağanüstü yetenekli” karakterler olarak görünür olmaktave bir tür büyücü gibi “temsilden kanaat önderine” dönüştürülmektedir. Yaratılmış tüm bu doktortiplemeleri, simülasyon evreninin bir parçası olup aynı sistem içerisinde yaşamını sürdüren toplumfertleri tarafından da mucizevi yönleriyle tanınmaktadırlar. Dolayısıyla söz konusu karakterler birergüven unsuru olarak tanınmaları sebebiyle COVID-19 önlemlerinin anlatıldığı kamu spotlarında bilgiakışını kolaylaştırmak adına kullanılmışlardır. Özünde birer temsilden ibaret olan dizi karakterleri,simülasyonun hakikatten daha güçlü bir anlatı barındırdığı varsayılarak kamu spotlarında gerçekhekimler yerine tercih edilmiştir.

To survive, nascent grassroots organizations—and their respective causes—must earn the trust of various audiences that can impact credibility advancement. However, it can be quite difficult for grassroots organizations to access suitable settings, times, and collocated audiences. One context that can yield this type of access is an event as it constitutes a rare opportunity for organizations to engage in practices that impact credibility advancement. We investigate how a volunteer-based grassroots organization orchestrates a high-profile event at the United Nations to promote African diaspora entrepreneurs as a valuable force in the mitigation of development challenges in their home countries. We employ qualitative data collected from ethnographic observations, interviews, and secondary sources and apply grounded theory approaches to demonstrate how organizational credibility can be advanced through performative strategizing within event settings. Drawing from heuristics used in theatrical performances, we found that the grassroots organization mobilized specific audience groups in participative role-playing across two acts, thereby producing and consecrating a temporary simulacrum of a cause-related community it claimed to represent. Our findings demonstrate how an unproven organization can strategically use audience mobilization to convert event settings into performative spaces for simulacrum creation and credibility advancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]