Phantom Communities: The Simulacrum and the Limits of Postmodernism

Phantom Communities reconsiders the status of the simulacrum sometimes defined as a copy of a copy, but more rigorously defined as a copy that subverts the legitimacy and authority of its model in light of recent debates in literature, art, philosophy, and cultural studies. The author pursues two interwoven levels of analysis. On one level, he explores the poetics of the simulacrum, considered as a form that internalizes repetition, through close readings of a number of exemplary literary texts, paintings, and films from both the Anglo-American and French traditions, including works by Jean Genet, Pierre Klossowski, RenZ Magritte, Andy Warhol, J. G. Ballard, Balthus, and Ra l Ruiz. Through his readings of these works, the author follows the transformations of the simulacrum, showing how its vicissitudes provide an optic for remapping the postmodern canon.