Baudrillards Challenge. A Feminist Reading eBook

field of the social sciences. Without doubt one of the foremost European thinkers

of the last fifty years, his work has provoked debate and controversy across a

number of disciplines, yet his significance has so far been largely ignored by feminist

theorists. Baudrillard’s Challenge is an attempt to redress this balance, presenting

the first systematic feminist reading of Baudrillard’s work.

Victoria Grace argues that Baudrillard’s critique of signification, the economy,

and the construction of identity offers a vital point of departure for any serious

analysis of the problematic of patriarchy in contemporary western societies. Drawing

on the full range of Baudrillard’s writings the author engages in a debate with:

• the work of Luce Irigaray, Judith Butler, and Rosi Braidotti on identity, power, and

desire

• the feminist concern with ‘difference’ as an emancipatory construct

• writings on transgenderism and the performance of gender

• feminist concerns about the objectification of women

Through this critical engagement Grace reveals a number of the limitations of some

contemporary feminist theorising around gender and identity, patriarchy and power,

and in so doing offers a way forward for contemporary feminist thought.

Baudrillard’s Challenge will be essential reading for students of feminist theory,

sociology, and cultural theory.

Victoria Grace is Senior Lecturer in Feminist Studies and currently serving a term

as Dean of Arts at the University of Canterbury at Christchurch.