The Early Modern Theatre of Cruelty and its Doubles

This book examines the influence of the early modern period on Antonin Artaud's seminal work The Theatre and Its Double, arguing that Elizabethan and Jacobean drama and their early modern context are an integral part of the Theatre of Cruelty and essential to its very understanding. The chapters draw links between the early modern theatrical obsession with plague and regeneration, and how it is mirrored in Artaud's concept of cruelty in the theatre. As a discussion of the influence of Shakespeare and his contemporaries on Artaud, and the reciprocal influence of Artaud on contemporary interpretations of early modern drama, this book is an original addition to both the fields of early modern theatre studies and modern drama.

Provides a comprehensive study of the cultural context that helped shape Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty Looks at Artaud's central deployment of the plague as a contagious and dangerous force Examines theatre after Artaud, with the understanding that the early modern context is integral to successful iterations of his theatre

Autorentext

Amanda Di Ponio is Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies at Huron University College in London, Ontario, Canada. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of St Andrews. Her areas of interest include drama and performance, early modern social history, and twentieth-century theory.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Interpreting Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty Foundations: Théâtre Alfred Jarry Three Influential Events Elizabethan Dramatic Conventions Cruelty in the Theatre.- 3. Theatre and Plague: The Doubly Potent Spectacles of Early Modern Culture The Marseilles Plague Physiological and Psychological Symptoms of Plague Plague in Early Modern England The Plague-Theatre Filth and Infection Theatre, Contagion, and Ritual.- 4. Bear-baiting and the Theatre of Cruelty The Pit and The Theatre Elizabethan Receptivity Jacobean Popularity The Arena of Ambiguity From Barbarity to Civility.- 5. Thyestean Savagery: Seneca, the Renaissance, and the Theatre of Cruelty Beyond Recitatio The Sacrificial Crisis Contagious Furor and Insatiability Ritual and Bacchic Theatre William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus directed by Yukio Ninagawa.- 6. Artaud and the 'Elizabethans': Revenge Tragedy as Inspiration for a Theatre of Cruelty An Emblematic Approach to Stage Language Arden of Faversham Revisited The True Theatre The Revenger's Tragedy The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.- 7. Artaud's Les Cenci From Innocence to Effluence Les Destructeurs The Theatre of Cruelty Test.- 8. After Artaud: Peter Brook and The Theatre of Cruelty Season Preparing for a Season of Cruelty Marat/Sade: On Stage Marat/Sade: On Screen Theatre as Cure.- 9. Conclusion.