Exploring transparency and simulation of reality in postmodern age : a baudrillardian reading of Etel Adnan’s The American Malady

Abstract EN

This paper aims to examine Etel Adnan’s the American malady from a postmodern perspective, namely using jean Baudrillard’s notions simulacra and simulations.

according to Baudrillardian perspective, the hyperreal perception is intensified in the postmodern epoch.

in this sense, media affects the consciousness of the subjects through simulating reality and evoking hyperreality.

it produces signs known as simulacra or simulacrum : a copy similar to a reference in reality or a copy that posses no reference in reality, thus, it becomes the only reality existing.

similarly, in the American malady (2009), Adnan is concerned with the influence of media and television in particular, on postmodern society.

it transpired that tv provokes a falsified hyperreal version that detaches the consciousness of the audience from reality.

hence, the lack of the distinction between the real and the imaginary results the nihilism of transparency, a feeling of emptiness due to the loss of reality.