Seduction
New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. 1st US Edition. Octavo, publisher’s black textured paper-covered boards, spine stamped in silver, light marbled gray endpapers, original photo-illustrated dust jacket.
"To seduce is to die as reality and reconstitute oneself as illusion." First US edition of one of postmodern theorist and cultural critic Jean Baudrillard’s best known works. Originally published in France 1979, the text represented a major shift in his thought, away from the sociological and toward literary and philosophical discourses. Articulating seduction as a ritual and game while attempting to understand "artifice" through critical theory, gender studies, psychoanalysis, and semiotics, Seduction deconstructs sex and capital in the post-Freudian 20th century. Despite Baudrillard's condemnation of the legitimacy of patriarchy and the "phallocracy," the book provoked considerable criticism from the feminist theory community for its universalist framework and disregard for difference when considering identity (notably, feminist scholar and performance artist Marilouise Kroker edited the text). Translated by Brian Singer. Photo to upper panel of dust jacket by Man Ray. Sporadic pencil underlining and marginal notations throughout. Light toning and soiling to unclipped dust jacket. Very good. Item #6770
$85.00