NSPCC advertising campaign

This image comes from an NSPCC advertising campaign. I believe it is performative for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was created in order to get children to speak up against the cruelty they are receiving at home. Therefore, the image is obviously very emotionally inspiring, the image is close up, the girl is young, and the picture clearly communicates her sadness. This image was created in order to inspire change within our society, and therefore, relating to Bolt's comments, it is performative as it relates to the world we live in and the problems children face. It draws upon a very realistic situation and is performative in that it allows the viewer to react emotionally. However, at the same time as the image being highly realistic, the ring over the mouth presents a metaphor for the child's fear of speaking out. This dramatic aspect of the picture makes it all the more performative and effective. She is physically trapped, as well as mentally.

A Performative Image

To my mind a performative image has the potential to change the world, to inspire thought and action in the viewer and to, in some way, affect the world. Bolt writes about the importance of the relationship between images and reality and to my mind this image captures this relationship very well. By presenting very clearly and in an almost 'violent' way the effects that smoking can have on your body, this image (taken from an ad campaign) has the potential to influence the actions of the viewer, therefore making it truly performative. Whether or not the image is able to inspire change is up to the viewer themselves, whether they choose to learn from what has been show to them and use this to in some way change the way that they live. The fact that the image has the potential to inspire this sort of change is what makes it performative and therefore very powerful, illustrating to us Artaud's emphasis on reality within performance. It is the reality within the image that gives it the ability to have such an impact.

Performative Images

The posted image is a piece of artwork by Gary Hill.

In his theatre, Antonin Artaud did not want the world to be represented in performance, but LIVED. This concept can be seen in the works of artist Gary Hill who tries to create powerful instillations that interact with the viewer in a performative manner. Hill admits to trying to achieve a performative status in his work, claiming that he focuses on the effect that his work has on the audience as much as on the work itself. Ultimately, whether an image is performative or not depends largely on the receiver of the image. This may explain Barbara Bolt's argument that, in non-Western cultures, images seem to serve a more performative function. In Art Beyond Representation Barbara Bolt highlights the performative relation between imaging and reality. Images should contain the reality of what the represent. She claims that "when life gets into the matter of the image, the image produces reality and thus casts its effects back onto the world". Only when this occurs, is the power of images to produce ontological effects realised.

Bolt claims that that works of art that exist as products well thought out in advance of their production adds to their potential performativity. This is true of Van Gogh's self-portrait in Annabel's post. Drawing on the cultural practices of indigenous Australian artists, Bolt argues for the material performativity of the work of art, especially of visual art. This work is performative rather than "merely representational". In many cultures, an image is thought to embody its object rather than by simply signifying it, a good example of this being the Catholic belief that during Mass the bread IS the body of Christ, in comparison to Protestants who believe that it is wholly representational.

Loxley, in his book "Performativity", states that something, language/an utterance/an image is performative if, in some way, it "intervenes" in the world rather than just describing it. An image can become performative if it does "something in the world" such as "pursuading or amusing or alarming an audience". The image below of a starving child being pursued by a vulture during the famine in Sudan shocked the world. It is now used frequently in the Western world to provoke people to donate to charity to eliminate poverty worldwide because of its ability to evoke feelings of guilt and shame. Loxley comments that performative images are usually "requests, orders, declarations" (2007: 2) This is certainly the case with regard to this image being used to request people to give generously to a charity.

Performative image

Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother

"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean-to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. " - Lange

This photograph has become an 'iconic' image that represents America's depression of the 1930's for many. It is not the specific context of the picture itself that causes this association, as Lange did not actually know the woman's name, or her exact history. What makes this photographic 'iconic' is the way it performs the wider social and economical context surrounding it. It shows the need of the migrant workers not through the woman's individual struggle, but through the way she 'performs' a whole situation.

This image of Tiananmen Square is, in my opinion, a performative image. The image rouses so much emotion and socio-historic importance that is has moved away from the realms of simple representation. The picture has an almost spiritual power as it “produces ontological effects”. The image itself represents an entire struggle of the people of China against an oppressive state. The individual struggle has transcended what the “the unknown rebel” was doing and is now an international symbol for resistance. Barbara Bolt says that a performative image occurs “when life gets into the matter of the image, the image produces reality and thus casts its effects back onto the world.” ‘Life’ has definitely entered this image as the rebel is willing to sacrifice his life to show the world and his oppressors the reality and pain of his situation. This performative image has definitely cast its effects back onto the world and symbolises our desire for justice and freedom.

This links in with what Pashers says about creating a dialogue between the image and the user and how the Tiananmen Square image has transcended its status as merely a sign. There is oppression through out our world and this image unites and represents those resisting. In the similar tone to what Annabel says about war propaganda provoking people and therefore being performative. This image is so perfect for what it is representing that it could have been manufactured for propaganda. But the fact that it is real makes the spiritual power and significance worth so much more.

Performative Image: Hindu deities/murtis.

After struggling for a while to think of something which can be considered a 'performative image', I thought about religion and the many symbols and signs used in each for different purposes.

In the Hindu religion, there are millions of murtis - beings that are aspects of the supreme Brahman or those that are supreme or spiritual in their own right - which are the embodiment of varying personalities and iconographies. Unlike the Christian religion which forbids the worship of an "idol... whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth" (Exodus 20:2-4), Hindus consider images and sculptures of murtis worthy of worship after they have been invoked with the divine, as it provides a point of focus for puja (worship) and meditation. 

By becoming the actual embodiment of the the divine rather than a representation of it, images of murtis become performative in the sense that they have a purpose; the spiritual connection between worshipper and the worshipped.

In the same way that Bolt suggests a 'dynamic relation between artist and materials' and the 'art coming into being', in can be percieved that the Shilpa Shastra's (traditional texts that describe the standards of construction for religious sculptures) and the Prana Pratishta (or 'establishing of life' ceremony) are how the images make this transition from representational to performative. Furthermore, these ceremonies which turn images and statues from their once representationalmode of Hindu deitys to their actual being the divine spirit, can be an example of what Bolt describes as the 'transmutation' between 'imaging' and 'reality'. This can be highlighted more by Bantinaki who suggests that the

image 'becomes in some way the thing that it

(that is, the image) is about'.

Performative images

When creating his "documents" Artaud placed great emphasis in bringing the real into the representation. His aim was not to merely present an image, but also to reveal the creative process and communicate his every thought and emotion to others; it is therefore the pain in creating the image that makes it performative.

Therefore I believe that an image that holds great performativity is a piece of sheet music. Music is a recognised language in itself and the composer can effectively weave his thoughts and emotions into the notes. With sheet music not only can you see the thought process, but the image can be converted into a performative act, therefore fulfilling Artaud's views of the subjectile becoming what it represents.

In relation to more conventional art, artist who use oils work with a very performative style. The appliance and texture of the strokes suggest the type of care and effort that has gone into the creation of the art. Whereas a print would just be a frozen image, the process and effort that has gone into that piece of art will be visible forever thanks to the enthusiasm of the artist. This is similar to Artaud's use of perferations on his 1947 Self Portrait where he did not only want people to view his work, but understand the pain that went into its creation and that he was feeling at the time. This Self Portrait by Van Gogh is similar in that it was created during a turbulent period in his life, coincidentally after he had left an asylum. The rhythmic brush strokes in the painting cover is haggard face before bursting out into the surroundings symbolising his inner torment. Van Gogh has repeated this technique in other performative art works such as starry night.

However, with reference to "Pashers'" comment I agree that images with an aim to have an effect can be viewed as performative as they evoke emotion, eg. Cigarette packets and guilt. In particular I believe that propaganda is a good example of this. The use of propaganda, particularly War propaganda, almost creates a sense of melodrama around a situation; that it has been created for a very pointed reason with an aim to sway the ideas of a whole nation. Because it is drawing attention, rousing morale, or even the fact that certain images have been created, not just as a representation, but as a manipulative tool to inspire or provoke people, I believe it is performative.

Performative Image: health warnings/a crucifix?

Having read Katerina Bantinaki's review of Barbara Bolt's book Art Beyond Representation: The Performative Power of the Image and a couple of chapters from the book itself, I am finding it hard to think of any secular images which could be considered to have performative elements.

Initially, when I was thinking of 'performative' as a term which simply meant 'which has an effect', in that a performative utterance is something which effects a change of some kind, I questioned whether or not the images on cigarette packets nowadays could be described as performative. To an extent, I think this is possible as the image has an intended effect of dissuading people from smoking. Bantinaki writes, '... the image is thought to embody its object rather than merely signify it; it is thought to assume a degree of reality that allows it to transcend its status as a sign, thereby gaining the power to affect the user ... in a more direct and powerful manner.' (215) Though the image is perhaps made more powerful by a projection, from the viewer onto the image, about the life of the person depicted, probably identifying the person depicted with themselves as a fellow smoker, it does not invite a dialogue between the image and the user.

The efficacy of the image may be questioned but does an image have to fulfil its function to be considered performative or just need to have a desired function? If it's the former, how would it be possible for performative images to be thought to exist in a secular, technocratic society? If the image has to fulfil its function, surely Artaud's images aren't performative either. Did his spells ever work?

The cigarette packet images have one serious set back in that they are highly representative, the documentary style of photography hardly enabling 'the dynamic relation between artist and materials' (214) which Bolt's theory suggests.

So what could be a performative image? Within the Christian faith, I wonder if the crucifix could be considered one. The action of prayer in front of a crucifix suggests its power within the faith. It could be argued that the depiction of Christ on the cross 'transcends its status as a sign' and hold some spiritual presence, what Bantinaki refers to generally as 'life': 'When life gets into the matter of the image, the image produces reality and thus casts its effects back onto the world.' (215) A believer supposedly having a prayer answered could be an example of this or, in folkloric tradition rather than scriptural evidence, the belief that the crucifix can ward off evil spirits, hence its use in exorcisms and vampire novels.

Cited work:
Bantinaki, Katerina. Review of 'Art Beyond Representation: The Performative Power of the Image' by Barabara Bolt, British Journal of Aesthetics. Vol. 46, 2006. 213-216.

Essay Questions.

School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies

Aspects of Theatre & Performance
Autumn Term Module 2008

THEATRE AND THEORY AFTER ARTAUD

Essay Questions. Essays (c. 3000 words) are to be submitted to the Departmental office by 4pm on Monday 12th January 2009 (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 does he mean and how is the surrealist aesthetic evident in Artaud’s work (artworks, radio, film, theatre writings etc)?

Q2. Michel Foucault says that ‘Artaud’s… madness is precisely the absence of the work of art, the reiterated presence of that absence…’ (Madness and Civilization p287) What does this statement suggest about Artaud’s artistic output?

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) In what ways is Artaud’s theatre of cruelty evident in 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.

On the difficulty of translation...

Translating a piece of writing into another language is not an easy task. It asks for a perfect knowledge of both languages in order to stick with the writer’s thinking. Eugene Nida in 'The Theory and Practice of Translation' says that he evaluates on the quality of a translation by its ‘dynamic equivalence’. Such a concept retains the attention of scholars who want to see if the message of the original text has been transported so accurately ‘that the response of the receptor is essentially like the one of the original receptors’. However the question we may ask ourselves is how similar a translation can be. Such a question appears particularly accurate if we look at the problems that translators met for the various translations that have been made of Artaud’s work and Rowell’s doubts on the possibility of understanding Artaud when reading it in another language. Firstly we may say that a translation of Artaud’s oeuvre seems futile if we look at the incredible vitality of his language. As reading it in French, we obviously understand that his texts profits for being spoken aloud. Artaud was himself a fervent defender of places where he could read aloud his texts. Some of the conferences he did in la Sorbonne were consequently seen as live performances where the audience would take part into a disturbing feast of words and meanings never experienced before.

French’s version of ‘To have done with the judgement of God’:
(The consonances are here being explicitly shown to illustrate my thinking);
J’ai appRis hieR
(il faut croiRe que je RetaRde, ou peut-êtRe n’est-ce qu’un faux bRuit, l’un de ces sales Ragots comme il s’en colpoRte entRe évier et latRines à l’heuRe de la mise aux baquets des Repas une fois de plus inguRgités)

English’s version :
I learned yesterday(I must be behind the times, or perhaps it's only a false rumor,one of those pieces of spiteful gossip that are circulated between sink and latrine at the hour when meals that have been ingurgitated one more time are thrown in the slop buckets)

The repetition of the guttural sounds ‘R’, 'ER' and ‘QU’ (which are pronounced « K ») give a dynamic rhythm to the sentence which is not present at all in the English version. Thus we may assert that through translation we loose the content of the text by giving the meaning of the words regardless of the sonority of it.


Artaud shows a profound concern for the words which are heavy in significance to the point where the “words regain some of their old functions” by going back to the ancient and sometimes forgotten roots of the word itself. In his fascinating essay, Paule Thevenin examines the language of Artaud’s 1943 piece of writing ‘Le Rite du Peyotl chez les Tarahumaras’.
As an example, the use of the word ‘escharrasage’ which is formed with the ‘eschare’/or’escarre’(as the new spelling would suggest) which means ‘eschar’ and that Antonin Artaud consciously spells with two ‘r’ as it was originally written. Artaud not only added ‘-age’ to the word which would have formed ‘escharrage’ describing the action which causes ‘eschar’ on the body, but also added the suffix ‘raser’ which can be used not only in his common sense: ‘to shave’ but as a city or a building which has been completely demolished after a battle. “Thus ‘escharrasage’ is the action of producing eschars which ‘destroy’ where it’s being formed”. I here try to give some layers to Artaud’s language in French and give a taste of Paule Thevenin’s essay ‘Antonin Artaud, ce Desespere qui vous parle’ which also puts into perspective the word escharre with the whole extract.

As a result we may argue on the meaning of the glossolalias from an English perspective. English and French languages do not share the same approach to the sound « K » which haunts Artaud’s writings. The glossolalias contain more than a pure ‘symbolic function’; they constitute one of the many composites of an organic ensemble that Artaud formed to find ‘a language prior to language’ which goes beyond the intelligible when words are no longer sufficient.
Finally it seems that the glossolalias cannot cross the boundaries of the language and convey accurately the substancial meaning of it. It is therefore the only moment when translation seems no longer possible the glossolalias remaining as they have been originally written by Artaud. This incapacity to translate the glossolalias materializes in some ways the incapacity to translate fully a piece of writing which calls for a common share of values and knowledge of a certain culture in order to comprehend it.

Questions re screening week 7

Please answer briefly to each in a single blog post.

Q1. What different kinds of bodies were used and how were they used in this production?
Q2. What did the titles of the 3 Acts mean?
Q3. How was sound used?
Q4. What if any aspects of Artaud's ideas for the theatre were in evidence?

One for Bertrand!

DIFFICULTIES IN TRANSLATING ARTAUD

After reading the comments below on Artaud's language, as well as Rowell's question in 1996 that "if you're not French how can you understand Artaud?", I was led to wonder to what extent the meaning or message of Artaud's writings has been lost through translation. Any translated material is undoubtedly not an exact replica of the original, but with Artaud's unusual style of writing and less mainstream vocabulary, have the translations been taken even further away than normal from the genuine material? For example, using Billy's and Charlie's example, even simple alliteration (the repeated 'k' sound) can present a dilemma to the translator. One must prioritise either style or content. Do they struggle to find words in the new language of lesser accuracy to maintain the alliteration? Of course, content usually overrides, but then the tone of the language is lost, a crucial element in Artaud's violent and 'spitting' writing. Translating things too ‘literally’ is a common problem, leading to rather ugly sounding phrases unintended by Artaud, such as “hungering after life” from his Theatre of Cruelty.

According to the philosopher Wittgenstein and his notion of 'language games' (later used by the postmodern theorist Lyotard), one can only truly understand a language if you are part of what he calls the appropriate "form of life". For example, theologically speaking, one could only understand religious language, such as the concept of the trinity, if they themselves were religious. Can this idea be applied to the translating of Artaud's unusual writings? Is it necessary that, as readers, we must be part of a "wider form of life" in order to truly grasp the meaning? Or at least, be of the same understanding as Artaud?

In order to translate Artaud's work precisely, it would be essential to understand his personality and motives for writing, a near impossible task given his enigmatic nature. Furthermore, it is important for a translator to identify with the person and to have a motivation themselves to produce work as true as possible.

Interestingly, Artaud had an unusual relationship with the concept of translation. He had done a number of translations himself, most of them reluctantly (either in an asylum or when in desperate need of money, as in the case of Lewis' novel 'The Monk'). However, Artaud also strove to have some of his own writing translated and selected for the English magazine, Horizon (Barber). It is therefore interesting to consider what Artaud’s own opinions of his work being translated would be.

Artaud's glossolalia as violent?

After reading Weiss' K in the Critical Reader, I became very interested in Artaud's glossolalia or 'speaking in tongues'. It is explained by Weiss that when someone speaks glossolalia, the phonetic structures they create roughly parallel their own mother tongue; in Artaud's case a high frequency of the /k/ sound which is very rare in French.

After speaking to a friend studying the history of languages, she explained that /k/ is a plosive sound (made using the mouth, lips and/or tongue) and that French language is dominated by fricative sounds (created by air passing through a constricted of partially obstructed vocal tract).

After looking at examples of his glossolalia, one can see that many other plosives are used, such as 'pec te', 'pek ti le' and 'pte' from To have done with the judgement of god. This tendency to harsher sounds is further suggested by Artaud's accent and pronunciation of these sounds as more akin to Italian than French;

where /h/ is never mute; /u/ is pronounced /ou/; /z/ is pronounced /dz/; /g/ is always hard, and slightly general when followed by /h/; the final /ch/ is pronounced somewhat like the German /ch/ - Paule Thévenin in a note to Artaud le Mômo

It's therefore possible that Artaud was reaching for a more plosive language; or a possibly more violent one in terms of expression. I was wondering if people thought it plausible that by the use of violent plosives and the frequent harsh stopping and release of the glottal sphincter caused by the /k/ sound, that Artaud was offering an act of spitting (or excreting, as suggested by 'caca') the inner feelings desired to be released, which along with the allusive screams of expression could violently assert emotion?

Questions from Week 4

What do you understand by the expression ‘ the crude and epileptic rhythm of the time’?
What does Sontag mean by a ‘total art form’?
Debate: Do you agree that ‘an image is true insofar as it is violent.’ (88)?

THEATRE AND THEORY AFTER ARTAUD 2008

School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies

Aspects of Theatre & Performance
Autumn Term Module 2007

Convenor: Dr. Edward Scheer (e.scheer@warwick.ac.uk)

Timetable: Thur 2-4 G56ß

Introduction
This module provides students with an account of the effects of Antonin Artaud’s writings on contemporary performance practice and its theorisation. Artaud’s writing on the theatre constitutes only a fraction of his total output but its influence has been immense. This module analyses Artaud’s life and work and examines his legacy across the disciplines which comprise contemporary performance: theatre, cinema, radio/sound arts and other cultural media. We will study examples of his own film and stage performances, his various approaches to the text and the image, and some of the key theoretical and performance texts which have responded to his provocations including the work of figures such as Grotowski, and Hijikata and post-structuralist writers such as Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze. Artaud’s challenge to theatre constitutes one of the essential paradoxes of modernism: how to break out of representation and embrace the Real (the world, life etc) while remaining within the realm of the aesthetic? This question requires us to interrogate theatre at its limits.

Course Outline

Week 1 Introduction to Artaud’s life and cultural context with regard to Surrealist approaches to representation.
Suggested Reading:
- Georges Bataille, from ‘Writings on Surrealism’ (Chapter 3 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- André Breton & André Parinaud, from Conversations: the Autobiography of Surrealism (Chapters 1 and 2 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)

Week 2 Artaud’s cinema roles as the basis of a paradigm for acting. Screening of scenes from ‘Napoleon’ (dir. Abel Gance 1926) ‘La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc’ (dir. Carl Dreyer 1927) ‘My Life and Times With Antonin Artaud’ (dir Gerard Mordillat 1996).
Required Reading:
-Francis Vanoye ‘Cinemas of Cruelty?’ (Chapter 20 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Daryl Chin, ‘The Antonin Artaud Film Project’, PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art - PAJ 56 (Volume 19, Number 2), May 1997, pp. 23-28

Week 3 The theatre essays, the 1930s and his development of an aesthetics of rigour and necessity. Artaud on stage. Performing cruelty.
Required Reading:
-Antonin Artaud, ‘The Theatre of Cruelty (First manifesto)’ and ‘No more masterpieces’ from The Theatre and Its Double
- Susan Sontag, from ‘Approaching Artaud’ (Chapter 11 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Gautam Dasgupta, ‘Remembering Artaud’ PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art - PAJ 56 (Volume 19, Number 2), May 1997, pp. 1-5

Week 4 Madness and cruelty. Artaud’s experiences of madness. Artaud on Van Gogh, Artaud as van Gogh. Foucaults’s theories of madness as the absence of the work of art. The theatre as work of madness.
Required Reading:
- E. Scheer, ‘Foucault/Artaud: the madness of the oeuvre’
- Sylvère Lotringer, Interview with Latremolière (Chapter 4 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Antonin Artaud, ‘Van Gogh the Suicide of Society’

Week 5 Performing the impossible body. The radio works. Reading ‘To have done with the Judgement of god.’ What is the body without organs? Artaud on the voice. Deleuze on Artaud.
Required Reading:
- Antonin Artaud, To have done with the judgement of god
- Allen S. Weiss, ‘K’ (Chapter 17 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Rex Butler, ‘Non-genital thought’, 100 Years of Cruelty, pp. 23 - 57

Week 6 Reading week

Week 7 Performance, violence and convulsive aesthetics.
Screening: Genesi, from the Museum of Sleep (2000, 60’) by Cristiano Carloni and Stefano Franceschetti from the performance by Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio

(Alternative: ‘My Life and Times With Antonin Artaud’ (dir Gerard Mordillat 1996).
or Performance film by Nic Roeg and Donald Cammell, Warner Brothers 1970. Cast: James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg
Reading:
Colin MacCabe, from Performance BFI Film Classics Series London : British Film Institute, 1998.


Week 8 Artaud and the Visual arts. Interpreting Artaud’s drawings in terms of his theories of the image. Outsider art and the performance of the image. Derrida’s Artaud.
Required Reading:
- Jacques Derrida, from ‘To unsense the subjectile’ (Chapter 15 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- E. Scheer ‘Sketches of the jet’ 100 Years of Cruelty: Essays on Artaud ed. Edward Scheer. Sydney: Power Publications and Artspace (2000)

Week 9 Artaud’s legacy Part 1. The limits of theatre, Doing Artaud: the failure of the 1964 RSC season of cruelty. Grotowski on Artaud.
Required Reading:
- J. Derrida, from ‘The theatre of cruelty and the closure of representation.’ (Chapter 6 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- J. Grotowski, ‘He wasn’t entirely himself’ (Chapter 8 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Clive Barker, ‘Tell Me When It Hurts: The ‘Theatre Of Cruelty’ Season 30 Years On’ NTQ 46. (May 1996)

Week 10 Artaud’s legacy Part 2. Contemporary physical theatre, butoh as dance of cruelty. Is authenticity possible in theatre? Introduction to performance art. Performance art history from Joseph Beuys and Shamanism to Viennese Actionism.
- Helga Finter, from ‘Antonin Artaud and the Impossible Theatre. The Legacy of the Theatre of Cruelty’ (Chapter 7 Antonin Artaud. A Critical Reader)
- Kurihara, Nanako ‘Hijikata Tatsumi: The Words of Butoh’ TDR: The Drama Review - Volume 44, Number 1 (T 165), Spring 2000, pp. 10-28
- Lynn MacRitchie, ‘Marina Abramovic: Exchanging Energies’ Performance Research #1.2 Routledge,1996: 27-34.
- Tanya Augsburg, ‘Orlan’s Performative Transformations of Subjectivity’ in P. Phelan and J. lane eds. The Ends of Performance, New York and London: NYU Press, 1998: 285-326
- Orlan, ‘Intervention’ in P. Phelan and J. lane eds. The Ends of Performance, New York and London: NYU Press, 1998: 315-327.
- ‘Breaking Through Language’ an interview with Mike Parr, Edward Scheer and Nick Tsoutas 100 Years of Cruelty: Essays on Artaud ed. Edward Scheer. Sydney: Power Publications and Artspace (2000)

ASSESSMENT: There are three components of assessment:

(1) Exam (50%).

(2) Essay (40%) An essay of approximately 3000 words. Topics to be announced. Due Monday 14th January 2008 (Week 2, Spring Term)

(3) Class/blog participation (10%). This grade assesses contribution to the subject in terms of levels of preparedness and approach to activities and discussions. It includes the quality and cogency of blog postings.