Baudrillard, modernism, and postmodernism

While Baudrillard denies that his work is in any way 'postmodern', and while his writings offer a critique of both the rationality of the modernist project and the eclecticism of the postmodern temper, it seems evident that his work makes a major contribution to the analysis of postmodern culture. At its most effective, Baudrillard's theory-fiction accelerates analysis of postmodern culture by looking beyond the shifts in prior discourse examined by most cultural historians, and by attempting to generate analysis on the scale of the most substantial changes within the postmodern condition. Nevertheless, Baudrillard's theory-fiction often seems limited by its reliance upon rhetoric and references drawn from early and late cultural modernism, rather than from the present (which Baudrillard tends to caricature in apocalyptic terms). Despite these limitations Baudrillard commands respect for his independent and insistent attention to many of the most fundamental discursive transitions within postmodern culture. a predominantly modernistpostmodern thinker,his work combines innovative insights with slightly antiquated frames of reference.