Sylvère Lotringer, who popularized French critical theory in the United States, helped inspire the “Matrix” movie series, hosted conferences for counterculture celebrities, lent his name to a character in an acclaimed novel (I Love Dick by Chris Kraus) and a television series based on it, provoked rants on Fox News and founded an influential publishing house — all while trying to outrun memories of a childhood spent on the precipice of antisemitic disaster — died Nov. 8 at his home outside Ensenada, Mexico, in Baja California. He was 83.

By background a Parisian Jew and by trade a tenured academic in the Columbia University French department with a specialty in abstruse philosophy, Professor Lotringer somehow charmed his way into a classically American career consisting of successive 15-minute bursts of fame, The New York Times said.