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THE
SCREAMING BODY STEPHEN BARBER |
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Antonin Artaud
(1896–1948) remains one of the most inspirational, provocative
and challenging figures 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 explores the violent
extremes of Artaud's vision – 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 SCREAMING BODY
gives a full and authoritative account of Artaud's film projects,
and his conception of Surrealist cinema including The
Seashell And The Clergyman. 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. Based on extensive
interviews with Artaud's closest friends and enemies, including
the psychiatrist who gave him electro-shock treatment, THE
SCREAMING BODY also includes brand new translations of Artaud’s
seminal texts Sorcery And Cinema
and The Butcher’s Revolt, and
contains many illustrations. Paperback. Size: 7 X 10 inches, 112 pages.
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