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As a powerful discursive trope, irony is used to interpret the recent Israeli-Palestinian ‘conflict’ since 7 October 2023. Hinging on various political discourses, the paper examines the workings of the political language, emphasising irony. Interconnected with semiotics, hyperrealism and Jean Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra, where the boundaries between what is real and imaginary are blurred, the paper aims to fulfil three objectives. First, it stresses the importance of studying irony in understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how language is used to manufacture consent, especially in media discourses. Second, based on the definition of a ‘lack of fit’ between what is real and what is imaginary, the paper argues that irony surpasses the classic pragmatic interpretations. It is used as a social critique but also contributes to the hyperreal. Third, the paper explains how the use of language in political media discourses aims to score ideological goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The article analyzes the mechanisms of constituting new media schools and the semantic features of its controversial models. The processes that accompany the introduction of innovative systems under the conditions of the new discursive media space are shown, which, in turn, determine the introduction and establishment of a pluralistic media environment in postmodern sociocultural systems. In addition, we discuss the transformations of media discourses of the totalitarian regime in pluralistic media structures and the virtual results accompanying the implications of this reality and its transformation into imagined narratives on the border of the possible and the impossible. [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.

Human beings are ontological designers. We build the tools, and then the tools reshape our identities. The ontological status in an electronically mediated world always implies a referential whole, a "totality" that endows "language", "events," and "actions" with meaning and significance. The ontological discourse is all about the chain of signifiers; surprisingly, the events of appropriation by which the being is (un)folded depend on a synchronic axis. The twist is that the axis can only be visible on a diachronic background. Questions of the existence of a digital being are always associated with the notions of time and space. Being-in is different than being in as it is located in the "now." The spatiality of "now" in cyberspace is important as this "now" talks about the forms of time--past, present and future of Dasein via the unconscious. Each post we share and each comment we put on cyberspace opens the possibilities for new ways of thinking--a thinking pattern involves the other avatars through the interplay of who they are and what they experience in "the desert of the real" (Zizek, 2001, p.15). Thus, the function of the "in-between" becomes différance, and in this act of deferral emerges the prospect of "poiesis." Bernard Stiegler, in his book Techniques and Time: The Fault of Epimetheus (1998), describes that the epiphylogenesis of man "[b] estows its identity upon the human individual: the accents of his speech, the style of his approach, the force of his gesture, the unity of his world" (p.140). Identity is like a (un)concealed truth, full of potentialities, yet to be discovered, but never arrive at the ending. Language is a special equipment to understand the notions of identity, especially in the Heideggerian world, where "essence" precedes "existence". That is why we refer to beings in their connection to other beings. To know why and how they connect to other beings, and even to the digital "spectre" (in Derridean understanding), we must revisit the Lacanian understanding of lack and Freud's tripartite structure of the human psyche (Tombras, 2019, p.119). The subject splits in the course of its striving to fulfill the lack forged by the desire of others. Therefore, the signifying chain is an automata--a lifeless network of signified jouissance in the virtual world. Lacan's Seminar XI is primarily taken up for its potential to radically suspend Heideggerian questions of the primary meaning of Being. Therefore, this paper explores the genealogy of the "essence" of a digital being taking up multiple roles in a true posthuman world by highlighting the newly emerging socio-cultural avenues cohabited with artificial intelligence and human beings--a world where the matrix disguises itself in its simulation. For fictional examples used in this paper include William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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]

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The purpose of the study on which this article is based, was to explore how to build cadets' ability to fight against disinformation in a post-truth age. Considering lessons from the study of the human mind, invited us to examine why we fail to discern truths rather than how to win this fight. Disinformation - often interchangeably called "fake news" - seeks to shape or change perceptions of information users. The understanding of disinformation by our young leaders is crucial because it - i.e. sowing distrust and doubt among members - is dangerous and even fatal to the Army, which places great emphasis on mutual trust as its core value. The military in general and the Army in particular are expanding their information operations capabilities, as North Korea is one of the few countries that actively engage in a disinformation campaign. During their years at the military academy, cadets should however improve their ability to discern truths before acquiring skills relevant to a counter-disinformation campaign. The best way to enhance cadets' ability to discern truths - even in a media-saturated age - is still to participate in deep reading, especially reading imaginative literature that fosters inventive as well as critical thinking. The current study argued that our grasp of human frailty through deep reading helps us develop an ability to discern truths. [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]

This article explores some eschatological facets of vehicle/road ecologies. Hitchhiking, as a disappearing form of travel in the twenty-first century (at least in the Western world), serves as a memento mori metaphor for our post-COVID era. There are plenty of death-memory features in auto-stopping. From vanishing hitchers through to the uncanny aspects of fear, danger, environmental concerns, and the search to escape social constraint through adventure, memento mori lurks/lingers near spontaneous roadside lift solicitation. As an art-historical and theological notion, it is inherently material and incorporates both eschatology and remembering. As a pragmatic act of embodied imagination, hitchhiking is itself increasingly memorialized as an endangered transgression and dying-out form of displacement. Hitchhiking is thus a socio-spatial memento mori for an epoch during which it is increasingly presented "virtually" in re-representational forms. I therefore propose that this phenomenon is a simulacrum, offering topical allegorical tristesse lessons for considering global annihilation. [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]

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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.

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Technological mediation theorists (such as Don Ihde and Verbeek) believe that human beings' moral actions can be transformed through technological artefacts to constitute a "good life". This paper, however, critically analyses two understandings of technological mediation, (1) technological mediation is something between humans and the world (prominent in Don Ihde), and (2) technological mediation is a direct constitutive effect (prominent in Verbeek), which will inevitably lead to the problem of "moral suspension" that I define. In the first understanding (following Zygmunt Bauman), the causal relations between moral actions and actual consequences are distanced from each other because of the "interval" effects of technological artefacts. In the second understanding (following Jean Baudrillard), designers are just "simulating" moralities in specific use and design contexts. Thus, moral realities are ultimately replaced by moral "simulacra". Then, I argue that to overcome the problem of "moral suspension," rather than distancing actions from their consequences or simulating moralities in specific scenarios, two possible approaches may be needed, the Way of Zhuangzi who declined to use any adroit technology to improve efficiency, thereby clarifying the relationship between moral actions and consequences; and the attitude of Bauman, who motivated our moral consciences and moral sensitivities, thereby reflecting the side effects of technological mediations and systems. In the end, I conclude that both of these two approaches are too difficult to universally apply, and the most viable approach is to use what Confucius called "the Doctrine of the Mean," i.e., seeking a balance between the two approaches. That is, while we should acknowledge that technologies intervene our lifeworld and constitute our thinking and moralizing ways, we also need to break away from technological trivialities to think about and pursue long-term moral goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

In White Noise, Don DeLillo presents a world mired in simulation, hyperreality, consumerism, and technologies. This article finds a connection between Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra" and Marc Augé's "Non-place"; that is, the simulated spaces can actually be considered non-places. This article analyzes the dilemmas contemporary American people are confronted with in three nonplaces: media as non-places, supermarkets and shopping malls as non-places and technologies as non-places, and reveals their useless and meaningless semiotic salvation by consumption of media, commodities and technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will consider how Carrie Fisher's presentation of the postmodern psyche draws attention to the popular assimilation of Freudian theory during the twentieth century and foregrounds the cultural currency of psychoanalysis and therapy in the Hollywood community. Postcards From the Edge follows the progress of recovering drug addict, Suzanne Vale, whose experience is often characterised by emotional, psychological, linguistic and reality displacement. I begin my discussion by examining the numerous acts of displacement exhibited in the text before considering how the postmodern displacement of reality is linked to Fisher's presentation of the contemporary psyche. The acts of displacement in the novel involve a generalised sense of substitution, replacement or removal as well as offering a more specific engagement with the Freudian concept of displacement as the projection of an anxiety or desire from an original object onto the image of another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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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.

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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]