02.25.03:
Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism
 A brief introduction to Baudrillard:
o Baudrillard marks the beginning of the encounter between
Marxism and postmodernism, an encounter we’ll mostly explore
through Hutcheon.
o Baudrillard begins his writing career as a Marxist, but in The
Mirror of Production and For a Critique of the Political Economy
of the Sign, he breaks with Marxism, arguing that its central
critique of political economy is too conservative.
 The problem with Marx’s critique, for Baudrillard, is in
large part that Marx does not question capitalist culture’s
focus on “production” as the primary source of meaning and
identity.
 This is where his title comes from: the “mirror of
production” becomes the only way we can know ourselves
or our world in Marxist thought.
 Thus, while Marx’s project is ostensibly a critique of
political economy, that project is still rooted in all the
assumptions of political economy.
o Baudrillard’s solution is to turn from an interest in production to
thinking about a system that is, for him, far deeper; in order to
penetrate the logic of political economy, one must focus on the
system of signification that supports that logic.
o This shift is a dual one: on the one hand, Baudrillard treats the
exchange of commodities as an exchange of signs, and thus turns
from asking how these commodities were produced to what they
mean; on the other hand, Baudrillard becomes interested in the
exchange of signs of all varieties, and the ways that the “codes” of
a culture underwrite its systems of oppression.
 Today: Hutcheon
o In your small groups:
 Discuss the first chapter from Hutcheon, which you read in
common, and talk some about the other chapters you
individually read.
 What is Hutcheon’s overall argument?
 What is the relationship between Marxism and
postmodernism?
 Do you see a relationship between Baudrillard’s project, as
I’ve just outlined it, and Hutcheon’s?
Notes:
 What is Hutcheon’s overall argument?
o Postmodernism is political because of its paradox: complicity and
critique
o Rather than being historical, it’s historiographic; talks about how
we represent history
o Postmodernism attempts de-doxification; attempts to provoke
questioning of the lenses through which we see the world
o Relates postmodernism to feminism, but talks about feminism’s
resistance to this association
o Doesn’t really see postmodernism as having agency; feminism, to
be successful, needs to act
o Postmodernism is itself constructed, and is constructed in different
ways by different writers, and so can’t be pinned down easily;
makes theory itself postmodern, not just the object of the theory
 What is the relationship between Marxism and postmodernism?
o Both are big on ideology (parody makes clear the ideologies
inherent in art); parody allows for an awakening into class
consciousness by making ideology visible
o Self-reflexive nature of postmodernism differs from Marxist
notions of ideology in not being imposed from above
o Conception of history is very different: Hutcheon is very much
against the kinds of meta-narratives that earlier writers relied upon;
postmodernism suggests that history is unknowable except for the
representation of history
o What we know as history has very much to do with power; who
gets to produce history
 How might you relate Baudrillard’s project with Hutcheon’s?
o