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64-560: Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud , better known as Antonin Artaud ( French: [ɑ̃tɔnɛ̃ aʁto] ; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French artist who worked across a variety of media. He is best known for his writings, as well as his work in the theatre and cinema. Widely recognized as a major figure of the European avant-garde , he had a particularly strong influence on twentieth-century theatre through his conceptualization of

128-460: A dialectical approach to such political stances by avant-garde artists and the avant-garde genre of art. Sociologically, as a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists, writers, architects, et al. produce artefacts — works of art, books, buildings — that intellectually and ideologically oppose the conformist value system of mainstream society. In the essay " Avant-Garde and Kitsch " (1939), Clement Greenberg said that

192-668: A 'fixture' in the Mexican art scene", though he was often under the influence of opiates, and spent much of his time "seated and immobile, ' cual momia ' [like a mummy]". Artaud also lived in Norogachic, a Rarámuri village in the Sierra Tarahumara. He claimed to have participated in peyote rites, though scholars have questioned this. During this time he stopped using opiates and suffered withdrawal. In 1937, Artaud returned to France, where his friend René Thomas gave him

256-475: A cultural term, avant-garde identified a genre of art that advocated art-as-politics, art as an aesthetic and political means for realising social change in a society. Since the 20th century, the art term avant-garde identifies a stratum of the Intelligentsia that comprises novelists and writers, artists and architects et al. whose creative perspectives, ideas, and experimental artworks challenge

320-472: A monodrama for voice and orchestra inspired by Artaud's late drawings "La Machine de l'être" (2000), "Le Momo" (1999) for violin and piano, and "Suppots et Suppliciations" (2012) for full orchestra. Filmmaker E. Elias Merhige , during an interview by writer Scott Nicolay , cited Artaud as a key influence for the experimental film Begotten . "La Véritable Histoire d'Artaud le Mômo", par Gérard Mordillat et Jérôme Prieur, documentary Avant-garde In

384-477: A number of film scenarios, ten of which have survived. Only one of the scenarios was produced during his lifetime, The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928). Directed by Germaine Dulac , many critics and scholars consider it to be the first surrealist film, though Artaud's relationship to the resulting film was conflicted. Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists, before André Breton expelled him from

448-549: A post-modern time when the modernist ways of thought and action and the production of art have become redundant in a capitalist economy. Parting from the claims of Greenberg in the late 1930s and the insights of Poggioli in the early 1960s, in The De-Definition of Art: Action Art to Pop to Earthworks (1983), the critic Harold Rosenberg said that since the middle of the 1960s the politically progressive avant-garde ceased being adversaries to artistic commercialism and

512-471: A private literary magazine in collaboration with his friends. Towards the end of his tenure at the Collège, Artaud noticeably withdrew from social life and "destroyed most of his written work and gave away his books". Distressed, his parents arranged for him to see a psychiatrist. Over the next five years Artaud was admitted to a series of sanatoria . In 1916, there was a pause in Artaud's treatment when he

576-490: A profound influence on theatre, avant-garde art , literature, psychiatry and other disciplines. Though many of his works were not produced for the public until after his death—for instance, "Spurt of Blood" (1925) was first produced in 1964, when Peter Brook and Charles Marowitz staged it as part of their "Theatre of Cruelty" season at the Royal Shakespeare Company —he has exerted a strong influence on

640-525: A result, Fernand Pouey, the director of dramatic and literary broadcasts for French radio, assembled a panel to consider the broadcast of Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu. Among approximately 50 artists, writers, musicians, and journalists present for a private listening on 5 February 1948 were Jean Cocteau , Paul Éluard , Raymond Queneau , Jean-Louis Barrault , René Clair , Jean Paulhan , Maurice Nadeau , Georges Auric , Claude Mauriac , and René Char . Porché refused to broadcast it even though

704-604: A significant influence on philosophers. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari , borrowed Artaud's phrase "the body without organs" to describe their conception of the virtual dimension of the body and, ultimately, the basic substratum of reality in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia . Philosopher Jacques Derrida provided one of the key philosophical treatments of Artaud's work through his concept of " parole soufflée ". Feminist scholar Julia Kristeva drew on Artaud for her theorisation of "subject in process". Poet Allen Ginsberg claimed Artaud's work, specifically "To Have Done with

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768-426: A spasmodic effect is created. Extreme fluctuations in pace, pitch, and tone heighten sensory awareness intensify ... the here and now of performance. Scholar Adrian Curtin has argued for the importance of the "sonic aspects of the production, which did not merely support the action but motivated it obliquely". In 1938, Artaud published The Theatre and Its Double , one of his most important texts . In it, he proposed

832-465: A theatre that was in effect a return to magic and ritual and he sought to create a new theatrical language of totem and gesture – a language of space devoid of dialogue that would appeal to all the senses. The Theatre of Cruelty he theorized in the text abandoned the formal proscenium arch and dominance of the playwright, which he considered "a hindrance to the magic of genuine ritual", in favor of "violent physical images", which would "crush and hypnotize

896-576: A walking-stick of knotted wood that Artaud believed was the "most sacred relic of the Irish church, the Bachall Ísu , or 'Staff of Jesus'" and contained magical powers. Artaud traveled to Ireland, landing at Cobh and travelling to Galway , possibly in an effort to return the staff. Speaking very little English and no Gaelic whatsoever, he was unable to make himself understood. In Dublin, Artaud found himself penniless and spent most of his trip in "hostels for

960-609: A whole forgotten mystique of production." However, their disagreements increased over time, particularly in relation to the differing logics of Eastern and Western theatre traditions. Their final disagreement was over his performance as the Emperor Charlemagne in Alexandre Arnoux's Huon de Bordeaux ; he left the troupe in 1923 after eighteen months as a member. Shortly thereafter he joined the troupe of Georges and Ludmilla Pitoëff. He remained with them through

1024-525: Is another definition of "Avant-gardism" that distinguishes it from "modernism": Peter Bürger, for example, says avant-gardism rejects the "institution of art" and challenges social and artistic values, and so necessarily involves political, social, and cultural factors. According to the composer and musicologist Larry Sitsky , modernist composers from the early 20th century who do not qualify as avant-gardists include Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Igor Stravinsky; later modernist composers who do not fall into

1088-638: Is facilitated by mechanically produced art-products of mediocre quality displacing art of quality workmanship; thus, the profitability of art-as-commodity determines its artistic value. In The Society of the Spectacle (1967), Guy Debord said that the financial, commercial, and economic co-optation of the avant-garde into a commodity produced by neoliberal capitalism makes doubtful that avant-garde artists will remain culturally and intellectually relevant to their societies for preferring profit to cultural change and political progress. In The Theory-Death of

1152-546: Is not reducible to a kitsch style or reactionary orientation, but can instead be used to refer to artists who engage with the legacy of the avant-garde while maintaining an awareness that doing so is in some sense anachronistic. The critic Charles Altieri argues that avant-garde and arrière-garde are interdependent: "where there is an avant-garde, there must be an arrière-garde ." Avant-garde in music can refer to any form of music working within traditional structures while seeking to breach boundaries in some manner. The term

1216-615: Is used loosely to describe the work of any musicians who radically depart from tradition altogether. By this definition, some avant-garde composers of the 20th century include Arnold Schoenberg , Richard Strauss (in his earliest work), Charles Ives , Igor Stravinsky , Anton Webern , Edgard Varèse , Alban Berg , George Antheil (in his earliest works only), Henry Cowell (in his earliest works), Harry Partch , John Cage , Iannis Xenakis , Morton Feldman , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Pauline Oliveros , Philip Glass , Meredith Monk , Laurie Anderson , and Diamanda Galás . There

1280-638: The NRF and was replaced by Pierre Drieu la Rochelle . Gide and Général de Gaulle gave explicit blessing to L'Arche , a literary review created by Jean Amrouche and edited by Edmond Charlot . It became effectively the replacement of the NRF in Free France (Algeria was the first part of France to be liberated). L'Arche commenced in 1944 (issues 1–6) and finished in 1947 (issues 23–27). Montreal, Tangiers and Algiers in this period became literary francophone centres replacing Paris. After liberation of

1344-605: The NRF . Later, he would revise many of these texts for inclusion i n The Theatre and Its Double , including the "First Manifesto for a Theatre of Cruelty " (1932) and "Theatre and the plague" (1933). Artaud had an active career in the cinema as a critic, actor, and writer. This included his performance as Jean-Paul Marat in Abel Gance 's Napoléon (1927) and the monk Massieu in Carl Theodor Dreyer 's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Artaud also wrote

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1408-514: The Theatre Alfred Jarry , Artaud makes a direct attack on the surrealists, whom he calls "bog-paper revolutionaries" that would "make us believe that to produce theatre today is a counter-revolutionary endeavour". He declares they are "bowing down to Communism", which is "a lazy man's revolution", and calls for a more "essential metamorphosis" of society. In 1926, Artaud, Robert Aron and the expelled surrealist Roger Vitrac founded

1472-572: The Theatre of Cruelty . Known for his raw, surreal and transgressive work, his texts explored themes from the cosmologies of ancient cultures, philosophy, the occult, mysticism and indigenous Mexican and Balinese practices. Antonin Artaud was born in Marseille , to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud. His parents were first cousins: his grandmothers were sisters from Smyrna (modern day İzmir , Turkey). His paternal grandmother, Catherine Chilé,

1536-686: The Théâtre Alfred Jarry (TAJ). They staged four productions between June 1927 and January 1929. The Theatre was extremely short-lived, but was attended by an enormous range of European artists, including Arthur Adamov , André Gide , and Paul Valéry . (For more details, including a full list of productions, see Théâtre Alfred Jarry ) In 1931, Artaud saw Balinese dance performed at the Paris Colonial Exposition . Although he misunderstood much of what he saw, it influenced his ideas for theatre. Adrian Curtin has noted

1600-576: The Théâtre des Folies-Wagram in Paris. The drama was Artaud's first and only chance to stage a production following his manifestos for a Theatre of Cruelty. It had a set designed by Balthus and employed innovative sound effects—including the first theatrical use of the electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot . It was, however, a commercial failure. While Shelley's version of The Cenci conveyed

1664-405: The arts and literature , the term avant-garde (from French meaning ' advance guard ' or ' vanguard ' ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art , and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable to the artistic establishment of the time. The military metaphor of an advance guard identifies

1728-551: The Académie Française and its associated networks'. In 1911, Gaston Gallimard became editor of the Revue , which led to the founding of the publishing house, Éditions Gallimard . During World War I its publication stopped. The magazine was relaunched in 1919. Established writers such as Paul Bourget and Anatole France contributed to the magazine from its early days. The magazine's influence grew until, during

1792-522: The American Language poets (1960s–1970s). The French military term avant-garde (advanced guard) identified a reconnaissance unit who scouted the terrain ahead of the main force of the army. In 19th-century French politics, the term avant-garde (vanguard) identified Left-wing political reformists who agitated for radical political change in French society. In the mid-19th century, as

1856-497: The Avant-Garde ( Teoria dell'arte d'avanguardia , 1962), the academic Renato Poggioli provides an early analysis of the avant-garde as art and as artistic movement. Surveying the historical and social, psychological and philosophical aspects of artistic vanguardism, Poggioli's examples of avant-garde art, poetry, and music, show that avant-garde artists share some values and ideals as contemporary bohemians . In Theory of

1920-473: The Avant-Garde ( Theorie der Avantgarde , 1974), the literary critic Peter Bürger looks at The Establishment 's embrace of socially critical works of art as capitalist co-optation of the artists and the genre of avant-garde art, because "art as an institution neutralizes the political content of the individual work [of art]". In Neo-avantgarde and Culture Industry: Essays on European and American Art from 1955 to 1975 (2000), Benjamin H. D. Buchloh argues for

1984-697: The Avant-Garde (1991), Paul Mann said that the avant-garde are economically integral to the contemporary institutions of the Establishment, specifically as part of the culture industry . Noting the conceptual shift, theoreticians, such as Matei Calinescu , in Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism (1987), and Hans Bertens in The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (1995), said that Western culture entered

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2048-468: The Director of French Radio, shelved the work the day before its scheduled airing on 2 February 1948. This was partly for its scatological , anti-American , and anti-religious references and pronouncements, but also because of its general randomness, with a cacophony of xylophonic sounds mixed with various percussion elements, as well as cries, screams, grunts, onomatopoeia , and glossolalia . As

2112-548: The French magazine K published it. In 1949, the essay was the first of Artaud's to be translated in a United States–based publication, the influential literary magazine Tiger's Eye . This rekindled interest in his work. He recorded Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (To Have Done With the Judgment of God) on 22–29 November 1947. The work remained true to his vision for the theatre of cruelty, using "screams, rants and vocal shudders" to forward his vision. Wladimir Porché,

2176-599: The Judgement of God", had a tremendous influence on his most famous poem " Howl ". The Latin American dramatic novel Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi includes a debate between artists and poets concerning the merits of Artaud's "multiple talents" in comparison to the singular talents of other French writers. A novel, Traitor Comet , was published in June 2023 as the first in a series on Artaud's life and his friendship with

2240-458: The artistic vanguard oppose high culture and reject the artifice of mass culture , because the avant-garde functionally oppose the dumbing down of society — be it with low culture or with high culture . That in a capitalist society each medium of mass communication is a factory producing artworks, and is not a legitimate artistic medium; therefore, the products of mass culture are kitsch , simulations and simulacra of Art. Walter Benjamin in

2304-472: The artists and writers whose innovations in style, form, and subject-matter challenge the artistic and aesthetic validity of the established forms of art and the literary traditions of their time; thus, the artists who created the anti-novel and Surrealism were ahead of their times. As a stratum of the intelligentsia of a society, avant-garde artists promote progressive and radical politics and advocate for societal reform with and through works of art. In

2368-490: The avant-garde push the aesthetic boundaries of societal norms , such as the disruptions of modernism in poetry, fiction, and drama, painting, music, and architecture, that occurred in the late 19th and in the early 20th centuries. In art history the socio-cultural functions of avant-garde art trace from Dada (1915–1920s) through the Situationist International (1957–1972) to the postmodernism of

2432-533: The avant-garde traditions in both the United States and Europe. Among these are Fluxus , Happenings , and Neo-Dada . Brutalist architecture was greatly influenced by an avant-garde movement. La Nouvelle Revue Fran%C3%A7aise The magazine was founded in 1909 by a group of intellectuals including André Gide , Jacques Copeau , and Jean Schlumberger . It was established 'in opposition to other, more established, cultural institutions, most notably

2496-416: The category of avant-gardists include Elliott Carter , Milton Babbitt , György Ligeti , Witold Lutosławski , and Luciano Berio , since "their modernism was not conceived for the purpose of goading an audience." The 1960s saw a wave of free and avant-garde music in jazz genre, embodied by artists such as Ornette Coleman , Sun Ra , Albert Ayler , Archie Shepp , John Coltrane and Miles Davis . In

2560-416: The cultural values of contemporary bourgeois society . In the U.S. of the 1960s, the post–WWII changes to American culture and society allowed avant-garde artists to produce works of art that addressed the matters of the day, usually in political and sociologic opposition to the cultural conformity inherent to popular culture and to consumerism as a way of life and as a worldview . In The Theory of

2624-545: The development of experimental theatre and performance art. In the introduction to his Selected Works, Susan Sontag asserts that his impact is "so profound" that Western theatre traditions can be divided into two periods - before Artaud and after Artaud". Artists such as Karen Finley , Spalding Gray , Elizabeth LeCompte , Richard Foreman , Charles Marowitz , Sam Shepard , Joseph Chaikin , Charles Bukowski , Allen Ginsberg , and more all named Artaud as one of their influences. His influence can be seen in: Artaud also had

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2688-514: The essay " The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction " (1939) and Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947) said that the artifice of mass culture voids the artistic value (the aura ) of a work of art. That the capitalist culture industry (publishing and music, radio and cinema, etc.) continually produces artificial culture for mass consumption, which

2752-596: The essay "The Artist, the Scientist, and the Industrialist" (1825), Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues 's political usage of vanguard identified the moral obligation of artists to "serve as [the] avant-garde" of the people, because "the power of the arts is, indeed, the most immediate and fastest way" to realise social, political, and economic reforms. In the realm of culture, the artistic experiments of

2816-470: The frequency of such misdiagnoses, coupled with the absence of a treatment (and consequent near-minimal survival rate) and the symptoms he had, it's unlikely that Artaud actually contracted it. Artaud attended the Collège Sacré-Coeur, a Catholic middle and high school, from 1907 to 1914. At school he began reading works by Arthur Rimbaud , Stéphane Mallarmé , and Edgar Allan Poe and founded

2880-477: The homeless". After "several violent alteractions with the Dublin police" he was finally arrested after an incident at a Jesuit college. Before deportation he was briefly confined in the notorious Mountjoy Prison . According to Irish Government papers he was deported as "a destitute and undesirable alien". On his return voyage, Artaud believed he was being attacked by two of the ship's crew members. He retaliated and

2944-516: The interwar period, it became the leading literary journal, occupying a unique role in French culture. The first published works by André Malraux and Jean-Paul Sartre were in the pages of the Revue . During the occupation in the second world war the NRF continued operations under the Vichy Regime, thanks to the work of Otto Abetz in negotiating terms with Gaston Gallimard . Then director Jean Paulhan resigned his position as director of

3008-535: The mediocrity of mass culture , which political disconnection transformed being an artist into "a profession, one of whose aspects is the pretense of overthrowing [the profession of being an artist]." Avant-garde is frequently defined in contrast to arrière-garde , which in its original military sense refers to a rearguard force that protects the advance-guard. The term was less frequently used than "avant-garde" in 20th-century art criticism. The art historians Natalie Adamson and Toby Norris argue that arrière-garde

3072-565: The motivations and anguish of the Cenci's daughter Beatrice with her father through monologues, Artaud's adaptation emphasized the play's cruelty and violence, in particular "its themes of incest, revenge and familial murder". Artaud was concerned with conveying the menacing nature of the Cenci's presence and the reverberations of their incest relationship though physical discordance, as if an invisible "force-field" surrounded them. Artaud's opening stage directions demonstrate his approach. He describes

3136-598: The movement in 1927. This was in part due to the Surrealists increasing affiliation with the Communist Party in France. As Ros Murray notes, "Artaud was not into politics at all, writing things like: ' I shit on Marxism . ' " Additionally, "Breton was becoming very anti-theatre because he saw theatre as being bourgeois and anti-revolutionary." In "The Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre" (1926/27), written for

3200-521: The next year, when he shifted his focus to work in the cinema. In 1923, Artaud submitted poems to La Nouvelle Revue Française (NRF), a prominent French literary journal. The poems were rejected, but Jacques Rivière , the journal's editor, found Artaud intriguing and invited him for a meeting. This initiated a written correspondence, which resulted in Artaud's first major publication, the epistolary work Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière . Artaud continued to publish some of his most influential works in

3264-479: The opening scene as "suggestive of extreme atmospheric turbulence, with wind-blown drapes, waves of suddenly amplified sound, and crowds of figures engaged in "furious orgy", accompanied by "a chorus of church bells", as well as the presence of numerous large mannequins. Scholar Jane Goodall writes of The Cenci, The predominance of action over reflection accelerates the development of events...the monologues...are cut in favor of sudden, jarring transitions...so that

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3328-611: The panel were almost unanimously in favor of Artaud's work being broadcast. Pouey left his job and the show was not heard again until 23 February 1948, at a private performance at Théâtre Washington. The work's first public broadcast did not take place until 8 July 1964 when the Los Angeles–based public radio station KPFK played an illegal copy provided by the artist Jean-Jacques Lebel . The first French radio broadcast of Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu occurred 20 years after its original production. In January 1948, Artaud

3392-801: The poet Robert Desnos . The band Bauhaus included a song about the playwright, called "Antonin Artaud", on their album Burning from the Inside . Influential Argentine hard rock band Pescado Rabioso recorded an album titled Artaud . Their leader Luis Alberto Spinetta wrote the lyrics partly basing them on Artaud's writings. Venezuelan rock band Zapato 3 included a song named "Antonin Artaud" on their album "Ecos punzantes del ayer" (1999) [1] Composer John Zorn has written many works inspired by and dedicated to Artaud, including seven CDs: " Astronome ", " Moonchild: Songs Without Words ", " Six Litanies for Heliogabalus ", " The Crucible ", " Ipsissimus ", " Templars: In Sacred Blood " and "The Last Judgment",

3456-504: The psychiatric care of Dr Édouard Toulouse who took him in as a boarder. In Paris, Artaud worked with a number of celebrated French "teacher-directors", including Jacques Copeau , André Antoine , Georges and Ludmilla Pitoëff , Charles Dullin , Firmin Gémier and Lugné-Poe . Lugné-Poe, who gave Artaud his first work in a professional theatre, later described him as "a painter lost in the midst of actors". His core theatrical training

3520-593: The rock music of the 1970s, the "art" descriptor was generally understood to mean "aggressively avant-garde" or "pretentiously progressive". Post-punk artists from the late 1970s rejected traditional rock sensibilities in favor of an avant-garde aesthetic. Whereas the avant-garde has a significant history in 20th-century music, it is more pronounced in theatre and performance art, and often in conjunction with music and sound design innovations, as well as developments in visual media design. There are movements in theatre history that are characterized by their contributions to

3584-472: The sensibility of the spectator", who would be "seized by the theatre as by a whirlwind of higher forces". In 1935, Artaud decided to go to Mexico, where he was convinced there was "a sort of deep movement in favour of a return to civilisation before Cortez". The Mexican Legation in Paris gave him a travel grant, and he left for Mexico in January 1936. After arriving the following month, he "became something of

3648-558: The significance of the Balinese use of music and sound for Artaud, and particularly the 'hypnotic' rhythms of the gamelan ensemble, its range of percussive effects, the variety of timbres that the musicians produced, and – most importantly, perhaps – the way in which the dancers' movements interacted dynamically with the musical elements instead of simply functioning as a type of background accompaniment. In 1935, Artaud staged an original adaptation of Percy Bysshe Shelley 's The Cenci at

3712-468: Was conscripted into the French Army . He was discharged early due to "an unspecified health reason" (Artaud later claimed it was "due to sleepwalking", while his mother ascribed it to his "nervous condition"). In May 1919, the director of the sanatorium prescribed Artaud laudanum , precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other opiates . In March 1921, he moved to Paris where he was put under

3776-408: Was as part of Dullin's troupe, Théâtre de l'Atelier , which he joined in 1921. As a member of Dullin's troupe, Artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day. He was originally a strong proponent of Dullin's teaching and they shared a strong interest in east Asian theater, specifically performance traditions from Bali and Japan. He stated, "Hearing Dullin teach I feel that I'm rediscovering ancient secrets and

3840-477: Was diagnosed with colorectal cancer . He died on 4 March 1948 in a psychiatric clinic in Ivry-sur-Seine , a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. He was found by the gardener of the estate seated alone at the foot of his bed holding a shoe, and it was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral hydrate , although it is unknown whether he was aware of its lethality. Artaud has had

3904-502: Was during this time that Artaud began writing and drawing again, after a long dormant period. In 1946, Ferdière released Artaud to his friends, who placed him in the psychiatric clinic at Ivry-sur-Seine . At Ivry-sur-Seine Artaud's friends encouraged him to write. He visited a Vincent van Gogh exhibition at the Orangerie in Paris and wrote the study Van Gogh le suicidé de la société ["Van Gogh, The Man Suicided by Society"]; in 1947,

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3968-539: Was put in a straitjacket ; upon his return to France he was involuntarily retained by the police and transferred to a psychiatric hospital. Artaud spent the rest of his life moving between different institutions, depending on his condition and world circumstances. In 1943, when France was occupied by the Germans and Italians, Robert Desnos arranged to have Artaud transferred to the psychiatric hospital in Rodez , which

4032-536: Was raised in Marseille, where she married Marius Artaud, a Frenchman. His maternal grandmother, Mariette Chilé, grew up in Smyrna, where she married Louis Nalpas, a local ship chandler . Euphrasie gave birth to nine children, but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood. At age five, Artaud was diagnosed with meningitis , which had no cure at the time. Biographer David Shafer argues, however, that given

4096-695: Was well inside Vichy territory. There he was put under the charge of Dr. Gaston Ferdière . At Rodez, Artaud underwent treatments including electroshock and art therapy. The doctor believed that Artaud's habits of crafting magic spells, creating astrology charts, and drawing disturbing images were symptoms of mental illness . Artaud denounced the electroshock treatments and consistently pleaded to have them suspended, while also ascribing to them "the benefit of having returned him to his name and to his self mastery". Scholar Alexandra Lukes points out that "the 'recovery' of his name" might have been "a gesture to appease his doctors' conception of what constitutes health". It

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