Essay Questions.

School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies

Aspects of Theatre & Performance
Autumn Term Module 2007

THEATRE AND THEORY AFTER ARTAUD

Essay Questions. Essays (c. 3000 words) are to be submitted to the Departmental office by 4pm on Monday 14th January 2008 (Week 2, Spring Term)

Choose one of the following topics:


Q1. Andre Breton once said that ‘the simplest surrealist act consists in descending to the street with revolver in hand and shooting at random, as fast as one can, into the crowd.’ (The Second Manifesto of Surrealism) What is the surrealist aesthetic in regard to performance and how is it evident in Artaud’s work (artworks, radio, film, theatre writings etc)?

Q2. In dealing with the question of mental illness and creativity, Michel Foucault asks as to the difference between ‘hallucination’ and ‘inspiration’ and says that ‘Artaud’s… madness is precisely the absence of the work of art, the reiterated presence of that absence…’ (Madness and Civilization p287) Considering Artaud’s prodigious output, how do you explain Foucault’s thesis?

Q3. ‘Smash language to touch life!’ (Artaud, ‘The Theatre and its Double’) What is the function of language in the theatre of cruelty? You may wish to consider how Artaud’s work in other media (cinema, drawing, radio, poetry) influenced his writing about the use of language in theatre.

Q4. ‘Conceived as an art form at the juncture of other signifying practices as varied as dance, music, painting, architecture and sculpture, performance seems paradoxically to correspond to the new theatre invoked by Artaud.’ (Josette Feral in Elizabeth Wright Postmodern Brecht pll5) How does Artaud’s theatre of cruelty explain developments in contemporary performance? Discuss with reference to at least 2 of the artists on the course.

Q5. In Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu Artaud calls for a reworking of the human body, in the form of a ‘body without organs’ which will liberate man and ‘teach him to dance inside out...and that inside out will be his true side out.’ (PF p79) Discuss this image in relation to the body in performance art. In what sense does performance art stage a ‘body without organs’?

Q6. Devise your own topic in association with your lecturer. NB. this must be completed and a wording agreed upon by end of week 10 in Autumn term.