View source for Antonin Artaud

{{Short description|French artist, writer and actor (1896–1948)}}
{{Redirect|Artaud|the album|Artaud (album){{!}}''Artaud'' (album)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| image         = Antonin Artaud 1926.jpg
| alt           = 
| caption       = Artaud in 1926
| birth_name    = Antoine-Maria-Joseph Artaud
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=y|1896|9|4}}
| birth_place   = Marseille, France
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=y|1948|3|4|1896|9|4}}
| death_place   = [[Ivry-sur-Seine]], France
| resting_place = [[Cimetière Saint-Pierre (Marseille)|Saint-Pierre Cemetery]], Marseille
| other_names   = 
| education     = Collège du Sacré-Cœur
| alma_mater    = 
| occupation    = {{hlist|Theatre director|poet|actor|artist|essayist}}
| known_for     = {{hlist|[[Theatre of Cruelty]]|[[Body without organs]]}}
| notable_works = ''[[The Theatre and Its Double]]''
| spouse        = 
| partner       = 
| children      = 
}}
'''Antoine Maria Joseph Paul Artaud''' ({{IPAc-en|ɑr|ˈ|t|oʊ}};<ref>{{Cite Dictionary.com|Artaud}}</ref> {{IPA|fr|aʁto|lang}}; 4{{nbsp}}September 1896{{snd}}4{{nbsp}}March 1948), better known as '''Antonin Artaud''' ({{IPA|fr|ɑ̃tɔnɛ̃ aʁto}}), 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.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Esslin |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIJjDwAAQBAJ&q=Artaud+Demain&pg=PA19 |title=Antonin Artaud |date=2018 |publisher=Alma Books |isbn=9780714545622 |language=en |orig-date=1977}}</ref><ref name=":6" /> 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 the [[Theatre of Cruelty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sellin, Eric |title=The dramatic concepts of Antonin Artaud |date=2017 |publisher=Quid Pro Books |others=Thompson, Peter. |isbn=9781610273718 |location=New Orleans, Louisiana |oclc=988943807 |orig-date=1975}}</ref><ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=Jannarone, Kimberly. |title=Artaud and his doubles |date=2012 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-1280880506 |edition=1st paperback |location=Ann Arbor |oclc=802057630}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Blake |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8xOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1 |title=Antonin Artaud |date=2021-12-30 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-67097-8 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":8" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Artaud |first=Antonin |title=Oeuvres completes |date=1956–94 |publisher=Gallimard |language=fr}}</ref><ref name=":17">{{Cite book |last=Artaud |first=Antonin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYdsGwAACAAJ |title=The Peyote Dance |date=1976 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0-374-23090-6 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Watchfiends and Rack Screams: works from the final period|last=Artaud, Antonin|date=1995|publisher=Exact Change|isbn=1-878972-18-9}}</ref>

== Early life ==
Antonin 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).<ref name=":6" /> His paternal grandmother, Catherine Chilé, 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]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grossman |first1=Évelyne |title=Antonin Artaud, œuvres |date=2004 |publisher=Éditions Gallimard |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-07-076507-2}}</ref> Euphrasie gave birth to nine children, but four were stillborn and two others died in childhood.<ref name=":6" />

At age five, Artaud was diagnosed with [[meningitis]], which had no cure at the time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Mèredieu |first1=Florence |title=C'était Antonin Artaud |date=2006 |publisher=Fayard |location=Paris |isbn=978-2-213-62525-6}}</ref> Biographer David Shafer argues, however, that <blockquote>given 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.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|title=Antonin Artaud|last=Shafer, David A., 1958–|isbn=9781780236018|location=London, UK|pages=16|oclc=954427932|date = 15 April 2016}}</ref></blockquote>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 a private literary magazine in collaboration with his friends.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

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".<ref name=":9" /><sup>:3</sup> Distressed, his parents arranged for him to see a psychiatrist.<ref name=":6" /><sup>:25</sup> Over the next five years Artaud was admitted to a series of [[sanatorium|sanatoria]].<ref name=":11">{{Cite book|last=Eshleman|first=Clayton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=umsjKdN5fUsC&q=%22Robert+Aron%22+Artaud&pg=PA165|title=Companion Spider: Essays|date=2001|publisher=Wesleyan University Press|isbn=978-0-8195-6483-2|language=en}}</ref><sup>:163</sup>

In 1916, there was a pause in Artaud's treatment when he was [[conscription|conscripted]] into the [[French Army]].<ref name=":6" /><sup>:26</sup> 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").<ref name=":9" /><sup>:4</sup>

In May 1919, the director of the sanatorium prescribed Artaud [[laudanum]], precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other [[opiate]]s.<ref name=":11" /><sup>:162</sup> In March 1921, he moved to Paris where he was put under the psychiatric care of Dr [[Édouard Toulouse]] who took him in as a boarder.<ref name=":6" /><sup>:29</sup>

== Career ==

=== Theatrical apprenticeships ===
In Paris, Artaud worked with a number of celebrated French "teacher-directors", including [[Jacques Copeau]], [[André Antoine]], [[Georges Pitoëff|Georges]] and [[Ludmilla Pitoëff]], [[Charles Dullin]], [[Firmin Gémier]] and [[Lugné-Poe]].<ref name=":10" /> Lugné-Poe, who gave Artaud his first work in a professional theatre, later described him as "a painter lost in the midst of actors".<ref name="FD772" />{{rp|350}}

His core theatrical training was as part of Dullin's troupe, ''Théâtre de l'Atelier'', which he joined in 1921.<ref name="FD772">{{cite journal |last=Deák |first=František |date=October 1977 |title=Antonin Artaud and Charles Dullin: Artaud's Apprenticeship in Theatre |journal=Educational Theatre Journal |volume=29 |pages=345–353 |doi=10.2307/3206180 |jstor=3206180 |number=3}}</ref><sup>:345</sup> As a member of Dullin's troupe, Artaud trained for 10 to 12 hours a day.<ref name="Goodall2">{{cite journal|last=Goodall|first=Jane|date=Summer 1987|title=Artaud's Revision of Shelley's ''The Cenci'': The Text and its Double|journal=Comparative Drama|volume=21|pages=115–126|doi=10.1353/cdr.1987.0047|jstor=41153273|number=2|s2cid=190460270 }}</ref>{{rp|119}} 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.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:10</sup> He stated, "Hearing Dullin teach I feel that I'm rediscovering ancient secrets and a whole forgotten mystique of production."<ref name="FD772" /><sup>:351</sup> However, their disagreements increased over time, particularly in relation to the differing logics of Eastern and Western theatre traditions.<ref name="FD772" /><sup>:351-2</sup> 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.<ref name=":4" /><sup>:22;</sup><ref name="FD772" /><sup>:345</sup>

Shortly thereafter he joined the troupe of Georges and Ludmilla Pitoëff. He remained with them through the next year, when he shifted his focus to work in the cinema.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:15-16</sup>

=== Literary career ===
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 novel|epistolary]] work ''Correspondance avec Jacques Rivière''.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:45</sup> Artaud continued to publish some of his most influential works in the ''NRF''. Later, he would revise many of these texts for inclusion in ''[[The Theatre and Its Double]],'' including the "First Manifesto for a [[Theatre of Cruelty]]" (1932) and "Theatre and the plague" (1933).<ref name=":4" /><sup>:105</sup>

=== Work in cinema ===
Artaud had an active career in the cinema as a critic, actor, and writer.<ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VimKQgAACAAJ |title=Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs |date=1994 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-17252-8 |language=en}}</ref> This included his performance as [[Jean-Paul Marat]] in [[Abel Gance]]'s [[Napoléon (1927 film)|''Napoléon'']] (1927) and the monk Massieu in [[Carl Theodor Dreyer]]'s ''[[The Passion of Joan of Arc]]'' (1928).<ref name=":9" /><sup>:17</sup>

Artaud also wrote a number of film scenarios, ten of which have survived.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:23</sup> Only one of the scenarios was produced during his lifetime, ''[[The Seashell and the Clergyman]]'' (1928).<ref name=":20">{{Cite journal |last1=Virmaux |first1=Alain |last2=Sanzenbach |first2=Simone |date=1966 |title=Artaud and Film |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1125279 |journal=The Tulane Drama Review |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=154–165 |doi=10.2307/1125279 |issn=0886-800X |jstor=1125279|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":20" /><ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Barber |first=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LMKAQAAMAAJ |title=Artaud: The Screaming Body |date=1999 |publisher=Creation Books |isbn=9781840680096 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Association with surrealists ===
Artaud was briefly associated with the surrealists, before [[André Breton]] expelled him from the movement in 1927.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:21</sup> This was in part due to the Surrealists increasing affiliation with the Communist Party in France.<sup>:<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qo2JAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA274|title=Twentieth Century Theatre: A Sourcebook|last=Drain|first=Richard|date=11 September 2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-86474-4|language=en}}</ref> 274</sup> 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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://essentialdrama.com/tag/theatre-de-alfred-jarry/|title=ARTAUD'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE SURREALISTS: ARTAUD VS. BRETON – Interview with Ros Murray|date=2017|website=Essential Drama|language=en-US|access-date=29 November 2019}}</ref>

In "The Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre" (1926/27), written for 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".<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvbwAAAAMAAJ|title=Collected Works|last=Artaud|first=Antonin|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Alma Classics|isbn=978-0-7145-0172-7|language=en}}</ref><sup>:24</sup> He declares they are "bowing down to Communism",<ref name=":8" /><sup>:25</sup> which is "a lazy man's revolution",<ref name=":8" /><sup>:24</sup> and calls for a more "essential metamorphosis" of society.<ref name=":8" /><sup>:25</sup>

=== Théâtre Alfred Jarry (1926–1929) ===
In 1926, Artaud, [[Robert Aron]] and the expelled surrealist [[Roger Vitrac]] founded the [[Theatre Alfred Jarry|Théâtre Alfred Jarry]] (TAJ).<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Jannarone|first=Kimberly|date=2005|title=The Theatre before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theatre|journal=Theatre Survey|language=en|volume=46|issue=2|pages=247–273|doi=10.1017/S0040557405000153|s2cid=194096618|issn=1475-4533}}</ref> 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]].<ref name=":0" /><sup>:249</sup>

=== At the Paris Colonial Exposition (1931) ===
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.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:26</sup> Adrian Curtin has noted the significance of the Balinese use of music and sound for Artaud, and particularly<blockquote>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.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Curtin|first=Adrian|date=2010|title=Cruel Vibrations: Sounding Out Antonin Artaud's Production of Les Cenci|journal=Theatre Research International|language=en|volume=35|issue=3|pages=250–262|doi=10.1017/S0307883310000568|s2cid=194010604|issn=0307-8833}}</ref>{{rp|253}}</blockquote>

=== ''The Cenci'' (1935) ===
In 1935, Artaud staged an original adaptation of [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]]'s ''[[The Cenci]]'' at 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.<ref name=":2" /><sup>:250</sup> It had a set designed by [[Balthus]] and employed innovative sound effects—including the first theatrical use of the electronic instrument the [[Ondes Martenot]].{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} It was, however, a commercial failure.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Landon |first=Meghan |date=2020 |title=Artaud, Living Theatre, Performance Group: Unsuccessful Catalysts for Lasting Cultural Change |url=https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=keanquest |access-date=23 June 2024 |publisher=Kean University}}</ref>

While Shelley's version of ''The Cenci'' conveyed 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".<ref name=":9" /><sup>:21</sup> 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.<ref name="Goodall2" />{{rp|123}}

Artaud's opening stage directions demonstrate his approach. He describes 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.<ref name="Goodall2" />{{rp|120}}

Scholar Jane Goodall writes of ''The Cenci,''{{blockquote|The predominance of action over reflection accelerates the development of events...the monologues...are cut in favor of sudden, jarring transitions...so that a spasmodic effect is created. Extreme fluctuations in pace, pitch, and tone heighten sensory awareness intensify ... the here and now of performance.<ref name="Goodall2" /><sup>:119</sup>}}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".<ref name=":2" /><sup>:251</sup>

=== The Theatre and its Double (1938) ===
In 1938, Artaud published ''The Theatre and Its Double'', one of his most important texts''.''<ref name=":9" /><sup>:34</sup> In it, he proposed <blockquote>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.<ref name="GBotting2">{{cite book |last=Botting |first=Gary |url=https://archive.org/details/theatreofprotest0000bott |title=The Theatre of Protest in America |publisher=Harden House |year=1972 |place=Edmonton |author-link=Gary Botting |url-access=registration}}</ref>{{rp|6}}</blockquote>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 the sensibility of the spectator", who would be "seized by the theatre as by a whirlwind of higher forces".<ref name="GBotting2" /><sup>:6</sup>

== Travels and institutionalization ==

=== Journey to Mexico ===
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".<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Hertz|first=Uri|date=2003|title=Artaud in Mexico|url=https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/fragmentos/article/viewFile/7673/7007|journal=Fragmentos|volume=25|pages=11–17}}</ref><sup>:11</sup> 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 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]".<ref name=":9" />{{rp|29–30}}<sup>;</sup><ref name=":18">{{Cite book |last=Patteson |first=Joseph |title=Drugs, violence and Latin America: global psychotropy and culture |date=2021 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-3-030-68923-0 |location=Cham, Switzerland}}</ref><sup>:73</sup>

Artaud also lived in Norogachi, a [[Rarámuri]] village in the Sierra Tarahumara.<ref name=":18" /><sup>:77</sup> He claimed to have participated in [[peyote]] rites,<ref name=":17" /> though scholars have questioned this.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=LeClézio |first=Jean-Marie G. |date=1984 |title=Antonin Artaud: le reve Mexicain |journal=Europe: Revue Littéraire Mensuelle |volume=667–668}}</ref><ref name=":19">{{Cite journal |last=Krutak |first=Lars |date=2014 |title=(Sur)real or Unreal?: Antonin Artaud in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico |url=https://keep.lib.asu.edu/items/127716 |journal=Journal of Surrealism and the Americas |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=28–50}}</ref> During this time he stopped using opiates and suffered withdrawal.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":18" /><sup>:77</sup><ref name=":19" />

=== Ireland and repatriation to France ===
In 1937, Artaud returned to France, where his friend René Thomas gave him a walking-stick of knotted wood that Artaud believed was the "most sacred relic of the Irish church, the ''[[Bachal Isu|Bachall Ísu]]'', or 'Staff of Jesus'" and contained magical powers.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:32</sup> 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.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:33</sup> In Dublin, Artaud found himself penniless and spent most of his trip in "hostels for the homeless".<ref name=":9" /><sup>:34</sup> After "several violent alteractions with the Dublin police" he was finally arrested after an incident at a [[Jesuit]] college.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:34</sup> Before deportation he was briefly confined in the notorious [[Mountjoy Prison]].<ref name=":6" /><sup>:152</sup> According to Irish Government papers he was deported as "a destitute and undesirable alien".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thedublinreview.com/extracts-from-the-artaud-file/ |access-date= 28 June 2012 |url-status=dead |work= [[The Dublin Review]] | title= 'An absent-minded person of the student type': Extracts from the Artaud file| first= Antonin| last= Artaud| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140413140545/http://thedublinreview.com/extracts-from-the-artaud-file/ |archive-date= 13 April 2014 }}</ref> On his return voyage, Artaud believed he was being attacked by two of the ship's crew members. He retaliated and was put in a [[straitjacket]]; upon his return to France he was involuntarily retained by the police and transferred to a psychiatric hospital.<ref name=":9" /><sup>:34</sup>

Artaud spent the rest of his life moving between different institutions, depending on his condition and world circumstances.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

=== In Rodez ===
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 was well inside [[Vichy France|Vichy]] territory.<ref name=":13" /> There he was put under the charge of Dr. [[Gaston Ferdière]].<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9wZaCwAAQBAJ&q=Artaud+Asylum|title=Antonin Artaud: The Scum of the Soul|last=Murray|first=Ros|publisher=Springer|year=2014|isbn=9781137310583|language=en}}</ref> At Rodez, Artaud underwent treatments including [[Electroshock therapy|electroshock]] and art therapy.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSe3DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA192|title=Modernism and Non-Translation|last1=Harding|first1=Jason|last2=Nash|first2=John|date=30 October 2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198821441|language=en}}</ref><sup>:194</sup> The doctor believed that Artaud's habits of crafting magic spells, creating [[astrology]] charts, and drawing disturbing images were symptoms of [[mental illness]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lotringer |first1=Sylvere |title=Mad Like Artaud |date=2003 |publisher=Univocal Publishing |isbn=9781937561413 |page=20 |edition=1st |quote=He was no less susceptible to all sorts of delirious ideas, which had continuously justified his internment in an asylum. Dr. Ferdiere, a poet himself, seems not to have doubted for an instant that his symptoms were of a pathologic nature and not a poetic one, as if the two didn't flow from the same source.}}</ref> 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".<ref name=":7" /><sup>:196</sup> 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".<ref name=":7" /><sup>:196</sup> It was during this time that Artaud began writing and drawing again, after a long dormant period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lotringer |first1=Sylvere |title=Mad Like Artaud |date=2003 |publisher=Univocal Publishing |isbn=9781937561413 |page=21 |edition=1st }}</ref> In 1946, Ferdière released Artaud to his friends, who placed him in the psychiatric clinic at [[Ivry-sur-Seine]].<ref name="Antonin Marie Joseph Artaud">{{cite book |last1=Morfee |first1=Adrian |chapter=Antonin Marie Joseph Artaud |url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CH1200010684&v=2.1&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w&asid=ca041aa318b4b8e9fe8d56620a267715 |access-date=12 April 2016 |publisher=Literature Resource Center |title=Modern French Poets}}</ref>

== Final years ==
At Ivry-sur-Seine Artaud's friends encouraged him to write.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} 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, the French magazine K published it.<ref name=":15" /><sup>:8</sup> 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''.<ref name=":15" /><sup>:8</sup> This rekindled interest in his work.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
[[File:Antonin Artaud – self portrait (1947).jpg|alt=Self portrait of Artaud from 1947|thumb|Self-portrait of Artaud from 1947]]

=== ''{{lang|fr|Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu}}'' ===
He recorded ''{{lang|fr|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.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Bradnock |first=Lucy |title=No more masterpieces : modern art after Artaud |date=2021 |isbn=978-0-300-25103-6 |location=New Haven |oclc=1184240032}}</ref><sup>:1</sup> Wladimir Porché, the Director of French Radio, shelved the work the day before its scheduled airing on 2 February 1948.<ref name=":4" /><sup>:62</sup> This was partly for its [[scatology|scatological]], [[anti-American]], and [[anti-religion|anti-religious]] references and pronouncements, but also because of its general randomness, with a cacophony of [[xylophone|xylophonic]] sounds mixed with various [[percussion]] elements, as well as cries, screams, grunts, [[onomatopoeia]], and [[glossolalia]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

As a result, Fernand Pouey, the director of dramatic and literary broadcasts for French radio, assembled a panel to consider the broadcast of ''{{lang|fr|Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu.}}''<ref name=":4" /><sup>:62</sup> 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]].<ref name="Escholar">{{cite web |last=Gadoffre |first=G. F. A. |year=1971 |title=Antonin Artaud and the Avant-Garde Theatre |url=https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:1m2969 |access-date=25 September 2017 |work=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |publisher=University of Manchester |pages=329–336 |volume=53 |number=2}}</ref> Porché refused to broadcast it even though the panel were almost unanimously in favor of Artaud's work being broadcast.<ref name=":4" /><sup>:62</sup> Pouey left his job and the show was not heard again until 23 February 1948, at a private performance at Théâtre Washington.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} 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]].<ref name=":15" /><sup>:1</sup> The first French radio broadcast of ''{{lang|fr|Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de dieu}}'' occurred 20 years after its original production.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Media poetry : an international anthology |date=2007 |publisher=Intellect |others=Kac, Eduardo. |isbn=978-1-84150-932-7 |location=Bristol, UK |oclc=185144409}}</ref>

=== Death ===
In January 1948, Artaud was diagnosed with [[colorectal cancer]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Gramont|first=Sanche|date=Winter 1971|title=Review: Antonin Artaud|journal=Diacritics|volume=1|issue=2|pages=25|jstor=465078}}</ref> He died on 4 March 1948 in a psychiatric clinic in [[Ivry-sur-Seine]], a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|last1=Thévenin|first1=Paule|last2=Knapp|first2=Bettina|date=1965|title=A Letter on Artaud|journal=The Tulane Drama Review|volume=9|issue=3|pages=99–117|doi=10.2307/1125050|issn=0886-800X|jstor=1125050|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":16" />

== Legacy and influence ==
Artaud has had a profound influence on theatre, [[avant-garde art]], literature, psychiatry and other disciplines.<ref name=":10" /><ref name=":11" /><ref name=":12" /><ref name=":13" /><ref name=":15" />

=== Theatre and performance ===
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 the development of experimental theatre and performance art.<sup><ref name=":9" />{{rp|73}}</sup> 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".<ref name=":1" /><sup>:xxxviii</sup>

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.<sup><ref name="GBotting2" />{{rp|6–25}}</sup>

His influence can be seen in:

* Barrault's adaptation of Kafka's ''[[The Trial]]'' (1947).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford illustrated encyclopedia |date=1985–1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=Judge, Harry George., Toyne, Anthony. |isbn=0-19-869129-7 |location=Oxford [England] |pages=23 |oclc=11814265}}</ref> 
* The [[Theatre of the Absurd]], particularly the works of [[Jean Genet]] and [[Samuel Beckett]].<ref name="EncycBrit">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Antonin Artaud |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36724/Antonin-Artaud |access-date=9 October 2016 |date=4 March 1948}}</ref> 
* Peter Brook's production of ''[[Marat/Sade]]'' in 1964, which was performed in New York and Paris, as well as London.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}} 
* The [[Living Theatre]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}
* In the winter of 1968, Williams College offered a dedicated intersession class in Artaudian theatre, resulting in a week-long "Festival of Cruelty", under the direction of [[Keith Fowler]]. The Festival included productions of ''The Jet of Blood, All Writing is Pig Shit'', and several original ritualized performances, one based on the [[Charles Whitman|Texas Tower killings]] and another created as an ensemble catharsis called ''The Resurrection of Pig Man''.<ref>{{cite journal |date=January 1968 |title=Dark Days |journal=[[Williams Record]] |place=Williamstown, Massachusetts}}</ref> 
* In Canada, playwright [[Gary Botting]] created a series of Artaudian "happenings" from ''The Aeolian Stringer'' to ''Zen Rock Festival'', and produced a dozen plays with an Artaudian theme, including ''Prometheus Re-Bound''.<ref>Edmonton: Harden House, 1972.</ref> 
* Charles Marowitz's play ''Artaud at Rodez'' is about the relationship between Artaud and Dr. Ferdière during Artaud's confinement at the psychiatric hospital in Rodez; the play was first performed in 1976 at the Teatro a Trastavere in Rome.<ref>"Marowitz, Charles (1977). ''Artaud at Rodez''. London: Marion Boyars. {{ISBN|0-7145-2632-0}}.</ref>

=== Philosophy ===
Artaud also had a significant influence on philosophers.<ref name=":15" /><sup>:22</sup> [[Gilles Deleuze]] and [[Félix Guattari]] borrowed Artaud's phrase "the body without organs" to describe [[Body without organs|their conception]] of the virtual dimension of the body and, ultimately, the basic substratum of reality in their ''[[Capitalism and Schizophrenia]]''.<ref>Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari (1980), "28 November 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?" In ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]''. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 149–166. {{ISBN|978-0816614028}}.</ref> Philosopher [[Jacques Derrida]] provided one of the key philosophical treatments of Artaud's work through his concept of "''parole soufflée''".<ref name="JEM7">{{cite book |last=Derrida |first=Jacques |title=Forcener le subjectile |publisher=Schirmer/Mosel Publishers |year=1986 |language=fr}}</ref> Feminist scholar [[Julia Kristeva]] drew on Artaud for her theorisation of "subject in process".<ref name=":15" /><sup>:22-3</sup>

=== Literature ===
Poet [[Allen Ginsberg]] claimed Artaud's work, specifically "To Have Done with the Judgement of God", had a tremendous influence on his most famous poem "[[Howl (poem)|Howl]]".<ref>{{cite book |last=Ginsberg |first=Allen |title="Howl" Original Draft Facsimile, Transcript & Variant Versions, Fully Annotated by Author, with Contemporaneous Correspondence, Account of First Public Reading, Legal Skirmishes, Precursor Texts & Bibliography |publisher=Harper Perennial |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-06-092611-3 |editor-last=Miles |editor-first=Barry |page=130}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book| title= Yo-Yo Boing!'' by Giannina Braschi''| chapter= Introduction |first= Doris| last= Sommer| publisher= Latin American Literary Review Press| place= Pittsburgh| year= 1998|isbn=9780935480979}}</ref>
A novel, ''Traitor Comet'', was published in June 2023 as the first in a series on Artaud's life and his friendship with the poet [[Robert Desnos]].<ref>{{cite book|title= Traitor Comet '' by Personne''|publisher= Outskirts Press| year=2023|isbn=9781977260826}}</ref> The sequel, ''L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish)'', was published in November 2024, and continues the story of Artaud as he defies [[André Breton]] and forms the Theater Alfred Jarry with [[Roger Vitrac]].<ref>{{cite book|title= L'Etoile de Mer (The Starfish) '' by Personne''|publisher= Outskirts Press| year=2024|isbn=9781977269980}}</ref>

=== Music ===
The band [[Bauhaus (band)|Bauhaus]] included a song about the playwright, called "Antonin Artaud", on their album ''[[Burning from the Inside]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.waste.org/bauhaus/l/antoninartaud.html |title=bauhaus:lyrics:antonin artaud |publisher=Waste.org |access-date=9 October 2016}}</ref> Influential Argentine hard rock band [[Pescado Rabioso]] recorded an album titled ''[[Artaud (album)|Artaud]]''. Their leader [[Luis Alberto Spinetta]] wrote the lyrics partly basing them on Artaud's writings.<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/artaud-mw0000537104|title=Artaud – Pescado Rabioso|last1=Unterberger|first1=Richie|access-date=30 January 2016|publisher=AllMusic. [[All Media Network]]}}</ref>

Venezuelan rock band [[Zapato 3]] included a song named "Antonin Artaud" on their album ''Ecos punzantes del ayer'' (1999).{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

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", 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

=== Film ===
Filmmaker [[E. Elias Merhige]], during an interview by writer [[Scott Nicolay]], cited Artaud as a key influence for the experimental film ''[[Begotten (1991 film)|Begotten]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.projectiradio.com/e-elias-merhige-the-best-apple-youll-ever-eat-the-outer-dark-episode-29-january-28-2016/ |title= E. Elias Merhige: The Greatest Apple You'll Ever Eat | work= The Outer Dark: Episode 29 | date= 28 January 2016 |access-date=29 January 2016 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131205336/http://www.projectiradio.com/e-elias-merhige-the-best-apple-youll-ever-eat-the-outer-dark-episode-29-january-28-2016/ |archive-date=31 January 2016 }}</ref>

== Filmography ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Year
!Title
!Role
!Director
!Notes
|-
|1923
|''Fait-divers''
|Monsieur 2
|Autant-Lara
|<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Artaud|first=Antonin|url=https://archive.org/details/antoninartaudsel0000arta|title=Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings|date=10 October 1988|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520064430|language=en|quote=actor.|url-access=registration}}</ref><sup>:182</sup>
|-
|1925
|''[[Surcouf (film)|Surcouf]]'' 
|Jacques Morel, a traitor
|Luitz-Morat
|
|-
|1926
|''[[Graziella (1926 film)|Graziella]]'' 
|Cecco
|Marcel Vandal
|
|-
|1926
|''Le Juif Errant'' 
|Gringalet
|Luitz Morat
|<ref name=":1" /><sup>:183</sup>
|-
|1927
|''[[Napoléon (1927 film)|Napoléon]]''
|Marat
|Abel Gance
|<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|last=Innes|first=Christopher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXJmuvvjnkcC|title=Avant Garde Theatre: 1892 1992|date=9 March 2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780203359372|language=en}}</ref><sup>:182</sup>
|-
|1928
|''[[The Passion of Joan of Arc]]'' 
|Massieu 
|Carl Dreyer
|
|-
|1928
|''[[Verdun: Visions of History]]'' 
|Paul Amiot
|Léon Poirier
|
|-
|1928
|''[[L'Argent (1928 film)|L'Argent]]''
|Secretary Mazaud
|[[Marcel L'Herbier]]
|
|-
|1929
|''[[Tarakanova (film)|Tarakanova]]''
|Le jeune tzigane
|[[Raymond Bernard (filmmaker)|Raymond Bernard]]
|
|-
|1931
|''[[La Femme d'une nuit]]'' 
|A traitor
|Marcel L'Herbier
|
|-
|1931
|''[[Montmartre (1931 film)|Montmartre]]'' 
|Unidentified
|Raymond Bernard
|
|-
|1931
|[[The Threepenny Opera (film)|''L'Opéra de quat''{{'}}''sous'']]
|A Thief
|G. W. Pabst
|
|-
|1932
|''Coups de feu à l'aube''
|Leader of a group of assassins
|Serge de Poligny
|
|-
|1932
|''[[Wooden Crosses|Les Croix de bois]]''
|A delirious soldier
|Raymond Bernard
|
|-
|1932
|''L'enfant de ma soeur''
|unidentified role
|Henri Wullschleger
|
|-
|1933
|''Mater Dolorosa''
|Lawyer 
|Abel Gance
|
|-
|1934
|''[[Liliom]]''
|Knife-seller
|[[Fritz Lang]]
|
|-
|1934
|''[[Sidonie Panache]]''
|Emir Aba-el Kadcr
|Henri Wullschleger
|
|-
|1935
|''[[Lucrezia Borgia (1935 film)|Lucrezia Borgia]]''
|Savonarola 
|Abel Gance
|
|-
|1935
|''[[Koenigsmark (1935 film)|Koenigsmark]]'' 
|The Librarian
|[[Maurice Tourneur]]
|}

== Bibliography ==

=== Selected works ===

==== French ====
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Original Publication/Publisher
!Notes
|-
|1913
|''Sonnets mystique''
|
|
|-
|1922
|''Tric-Trac du ciel''
|
|
|-
|1925
|''L'Ombilic des limbes''
|
|
|-
|1927
|''Le Pèse-Nerfs''
|
|
|-
|
|''L'Art et la mort''
|
|
|-
|
|''La Coquille et le clergyman''
|
|film scenario
|-
|
|''Sorcellerie et cinéma''
|
|
|-
|1934
|''Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné''
|
|
|-
|1938
|[[The Theatre and Its Double|''Le Théâtre et son double'']]
|Gallimard, Collection ''Métamorphoses''
|seminal collection of texts on theatre
|-
|1946
|''Lettres de Rodez''
|
|
|-
|1947
|''Van Gogh, le suicide de la société''
|
|
|-
|
|''Au pays des Tarahumaras''
|
|
|-
|1948
|''Pour en finir avec le jugement de Dieu''
|
|
|-
|
|''Lettre contre la Kabbale''
|
|
|}

==== English translation ====
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Translator
!Publisher
!Notes
|-
|1958
|''[[The Theatre and Its Double]]''
|Mary Caroline Richards
|New York: [[Grove Weidenfeld]]
|
|-
|1963
|''Artaud Anthology''
|[[Jack Hirschman]]
|San Francisco: [[City Lights Publishers]]
|Edited and with an introduction by [[Susan Sontag]]
|-
|1971
|''Collected Works of Antonin Artaud''
|Victor Corti
|London: [[Calder and Boyars]]
|
|-
|1976
|''Selected Writings''
|[[Helen Weaver]]
|New York: [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]
|Edited and with an introduction by Susan Sontag
|-
|1995
|''Watchfiends and Rack Screams: works from the final period''
|Clayton Eshleman, with Bernard Bador
|Boston: [[Exact Change]]
|
|-
|2008
|''50 Drawings to Murder Magic''
|Donald Nicholson-Smith
|London: [[Seagull Books]]
|{{ISBN|978-1-905422-66-1}}
|-
|2019
|''Heliogabalus or, the Crowned Anarchist''
|[[Alexis Lykiard]]
|London: Infinity Land Press
|{{ISBN|978-1-9160091-1-0}}
|-
|2024
|''The Theatre and Its Double''
|Mark Taylor-Batty
|Bloomsbury Publishing: Methuen Drama
|ISBN 9781350288720
|-
|2024
|''[https://www.contramundumpress.com/journey-to-mexico Journey to Mexico: Revolutionary Messages & The Tarahumara]''
|[[Rainer J. Hanshe]]
|New York: Contra Mundum Press
|{{ISBN|978-1940625-64-5}}
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
=== In English ===
'''Books'''
*Barber, Stephen. ''Antonin Artaud: Blows and Bombs'' (Faber and Faber: London, 1993) {{ISBN|0-571-17252-0}}
*Bradnock, Lucy. ''No More Masterpieces: Modern Art After Artaud'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021).
*[[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] and [[Félix Guattari]]. ''[[Anti-Oedipus]]: [[Capitalism and Schizophrenia]]''. Trans. R. Hurley, H. Seem, and M. Lane. (New York: Viking Penguin, 1977).
*Esslin, Martin. ''Antonin Artaud''. London: John Calder, 1976.
*Greene, Naomi. ''Antonin Artaud: Poet Without Words''. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971).
*Goodall, Jane. ''Artaud and the Gnostic Drama.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press; Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|0-19-815186-1}}
*Jamieson, Lee. ''Antonin Artaud: From Theory to Practice'' (Greenwich Exchange: London, 2007) {{ISBN|978-1-871551-98-3}}.
*Jannarone, Kimberly. ''Artaud and His Doubles'' (Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan Press, 2010).
*Knapp, Bettina. ''Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision''. (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1980).
*Morris, Blake. ''Antonin Artaud'' (London: Routledge, 2022).
*Plunka, Gene A. (ed). ''Antonin Artaud and the Modern Theater''. (Cranbury: Associated University Presses. 1994).
*Rose, Mark. ''The Actor and His Double: Mime and Movement for the Theatre of Cruelty''. (Actor Training Research Institute, 1986).
*Shafer, David. ''Antonin Artaud''. (London: Reaktion Books, 2016)

'''Articles and chapters'''
*[[George Bataille|Bataille, George]]. "Surrealism Day to Day". In ''The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism''. Trans. Michael Richardson. London: Verso, 1994. 34–47.
*[[Leo Bersani|Bersani, Leo]]. "Artaud, Defecation, and Birth". In ''A Future for Astyanax: Character and Desire in Literature''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976.
*[[Maurice Blanchot|Blanchot, Maurice]]. "Cruel Poetic Reason (the rapacious need for flight)". In ''The Infinite Conversation''. Trans. Susan Hanson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. 293–297.
*[[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]]. "Thirteenth Series of the Schizophrenic and the Little Girl". In ''The Logic of Sense''. Trans. Mark Lester with Charles Stivale. Ed. Constantin V. Boundas. New York: Columbia University Press, 1990. 82–93.
*[[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] and [[Félix Guattari]]. "28 November 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs?". In ''[[A Thousand Plateaus]]: Capitalism and Schizophrenia''. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. 149–166.
*[[Jacques Derrida|Derrida, Jacques]]. "The Theatre of Cruelty" and "La Parole Souffle". In ''Writing and Difference''. Trans. Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-226-14329-5}}
*Ferdière, Gaston. "I Looked after Antonin Artaud". In ''Artaud at Rodez''. Marowitz, Charles (1977). pp.&nbsp;103–112. London: Marion Boyars. {{ISBN|0-7145-2632-0}}.
*Innes, Christopher. "Antonin Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty". In ''Avant-Garde Theatre 1892–1992'' (London: Routledge, 1993).
*Jannarone, Kimberly. "The Theater Before Its Double: Artaud Directs in the Alfred Jarry Theater", ''Theatre Survey'' 46.2 (November 2005), 247–273.
*Koch, Stephen. "On Artaud." ''Tri-Quarterly'', no. 6 (Spring 1966): 29–37.
*Pireddu, Nicoletta. "The mark and the mask: psychosis in Artaud's alphabet of cruelty," ''Arachnē: An International Journal of Language and Literature'' 3 (1), 1996: 43–65.
*Rainer, Friedrich. "The Deconstructed Self in Artaud and Brecht: Negation of Subject and Antitotalitarianism", ''Forum for Modern Language Studies'', 26:3 (July 1990): 282–297.
*[[Roger Shattuck|Shattuck, Roger]]. "Artaud Possessed". In ''The Innocent Eye''. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1984. 169–186.
*[[Susan Sontag|Sontag, Susan]]. "Approaching Artaud". In ''[[Under the Sign of Saturn]]''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1980. 13–72. [Also printed as Introduction to ''Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings'', ed. Sontag.]
*Ward, Nigel "Fifty-one Shocks of Artaud", ''New Theatre Quarterly'' Vol. XV, Part 2 (NTQ58 May 1999): 123–128

=== In French ===
*Blanchot, Maurice. "Artaud" {{lang|fr|La Nouvelle Revue Française 4}} (November 1956, no. 47): 873–881.
*Brau, Jean-Louis. ''Antonin Artaud''. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1971.
*{{lang|fr|Héliogabale ou l'Anarchiste couronné}}, 1969
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, Portraits et Gris-gris'', Paris: Blusson, 1984, new edition with additions, 2008. {{ISBN|978-2907784221}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, Voyages'', Paris: Blusson, 1992. {{ISBN|978-2907784054}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud, de l'ange'', Paris: Blusson, 1992. {{ISBN|978-2907784061}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Sur l'électrochoc, le cas Antonin Artaud'', Paris: Blusson, 1996. {{ISBN|978-2907784115}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''C'était Antonin Artaud'', biography, Fayard, 2006. {{ISBN|978-2213625256}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''La Chine d'Antonin Artaud / Le Japon d'Antonin Artaud'', Paris: Blusson, 2006. {{ISBN|978-2907784177}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''L'Affaire Artaud'', journal ethnographique, Paris: Fayard, 2009. {{ISBN|978-2213637600}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Antonin Artaud dans la guerre, de Verdun à Hitler. L'hygiène mentale'', Paris: Blusson, 2013.{{ISBN|978-2907784269}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''Vincent van Gogh, Antonin Artaud. Ciné-roman. Ciné-peinture'', Paris: Blusson, 2014.{{ISBN|978-2907784283}}
* Florence de Mèredieu, ''BACON, ARTAUD, VINCI. Une blessure magnifique'', Paris: Blusson, 2019. {{ISBN|978-2-907784-29-0}}
*Virmaux, Alain. ''Antonin Artaud et le théâtre''. Paris: Seghers, 1970.
*Virmaux, Alain and Odette. ''Artaud: un bilan critique''. Paris: Belfond, 1979.
*Virmaux, Alain and Odette. ''Antonin Artaud: qui êtes-vous?'' Lyon: La Manufacture, 1986.

=== In German ===
*Seegers, U. ''Alchemie des Sehens. Hermetische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert. Antonin Artaud, Yves Klein, Sigmar Polke'' (Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2003).

== External links ==
{{Sister project links|auto=y}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Antonin Artaud}}
* {{IMDb title|0106810|En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud (1993)}} an anachronistic film account of Artaud's life.

{{Antonin Artaud}}
{{Surrealists}}
{{Poète maudit}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Artaud, Antonin}}
[[Category:Antonin Artaud| ]]
[[Category:1896 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century French dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century French male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century French poets]]
[[Category:20th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer in France]]
[[Category:French acting theorists]]
[[Category:French artists]]
[[Category:French male film actors]]
[[Category:French male poets]]
[[Category:French male silent film actors]]
[[Category:French male stage actors]]
[[Category:French military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:French people of Greek descent]]
[[Category:French surrealist writers]]
[[Category:Male actors from Marseille]]
[[Category:French modern artists]]
[[Category:Modernist theatre]]
[[Category:People with schizophrenia]]
[[Category:Poètes maudits]]
[[Category:Surrealist dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Surrealist poets]]
[[Category:Theatre practitioners]]
[[Category:Writers from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur]]
[[Category:Poets with disabilities]]
[[Category:Actors with disabilities]]
[[Category:French writers with disabilities]]