Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) remains the most inspirational,
provocative and challenging figure in world-wide contemporary
culture. His trajectory extends from the Surrealist movement, to the Theatre
of Cruelty, to the lunatic asylums of France, and finally back to Paris and the
most astonishing period of his work.
This unique book, by the leading English-language authority on Artaud, explores the extremes of Artaud's work - work that is traversed by forces of ecstasy and annihilation, and sutured together by a raw imagery of the screaming human body.
For the first time, the book gives a full and authoritative account of Artaud's film projects, and his conception of Surrealist cinema. It examines his unique series of drawings of the fragmented human body, begun in the ward of a lunatic asylum and finished in a state of furious liberation. Finally, the book captures Artaud's ultimate experiment with the screaming body in the form of his censored recording To Have Done With The Judgement Of God - an experiment which is unprecedented in the history of art, and which ultimately decimates that history.
THE SCREAMING BODY also expertly explores the links between Artaud's work and that of other legendary figures, counter-cultures and avant-garde groups, such as the Lettrist and Situationist movements, the Vienna Action Group, Tatsumi Hijikata and his Japanese Butoh performance art form, and many others.
The book is based on extensive interviews with Artaud's closest friends and enemies, including the psychiatrist who gave him electro-shock treatment. It also contains rare illustration material, most of it never before seen in an English-language book.
THE SCREAMING BODY is an essential resource and inspiration for those engaged in creating the definitive culture of our time, in film, art, music and writing.