The Secret Art of Antonin Artaud [Hardcover]

Jacques Derrida (Author), Paule Thýývenin (Author), Mary Ann Caws (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1998

Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) was a stage and film actor, director, writer, drug addict, and visual artist. This volume presents two texts translated into English which describe Artaud's drawings and portraits. In one, Jacques Derrida examines the works that he first saw on the walls of Paule Thevenin's apartment. His text struggles with Artaud's language and is punctuated by footnotes and asides that reflect this strain ("How will they translate this?"). The more straightforward text of Paule Thevenin describes the history of Artaud's drawings and portraits. Due to a dispute between Artaud's heirs and Paule Thevenin, the book does not contain reproductions of Artaud's artwork. Instead, there is a series of photographs of Artaud by Georges Pastier. "We won't be describing any paintings," says Derrida in the text, which is addressed to that which underlies both language and art.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Surrealist Andr? Breton extolled Antonin Artaud (1896-1948), poet, playwright, artist, and theater theoretician, "for his passionate, heroic, negation of everything that causes us to be dead while alive." Artaud struggled with mental illness and drug addiction and was in and out of mental institutions all of his life. Here, Caws (English, French, and comparative literature, CUNY) ably translates two thought-provoking essays on Artaud into English for the first time. Th?venin, editor of most of Artaud's work, provides a graphic description and analysis of his disturbing drawings and paintings in her essay "The Search for the Lost World." In "To Unsense the Subjectile," Derrida, deconstruction's principal proponent, examines the subjectile in Artaud's work, what lies beneath or that which "refuses to be dominated by the writing process." Though it will have little appeal to a broader circle of readers, this short book will be extremely useful for scholars of the avant-garde, particularly those who are interested in Artaud.ARobert T. Ivey, Univ. of Memphis
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"[T]his short book will be extremely useful for scholars of the avant-garde, particularly those who are interested in Artaud."
—Robert T. Ivey, Library Journal --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: MIT Press; 1st edition (May 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262041650
• ISBN-13: 978-0262041652
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,011,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), was born in Algeria, has been called the most famous philosopher of our time. He was the author of a number of books, including Writing and Difference, which came to be seen as defining texts of postmodernist thought.