Staging the problem of metaphysics : reinterpreting antonin artaud through the work of Jacques Derrida

Abstract

In 1923, French playwright Antonin Artaud initiated correspondence with editor Jacques Rivière, where he opened up about feeling completely disconnected from his own thoughts. Later on, this intuition serves as the foundation for the majority of his work, revolving around the inability for authentic expression of any kind. Artaud remains primarily within the context of theatre and the visual arts, however his concerns can then be traced to philosophical debates. Jacques Derrida writes extensively about the metaphysical weight of Artaud’s works, and how this idea of an internal severance reveals structural problems embedded in language itself. In this dissertation I argue that the relation between the two figures can be broadened beyond Derrida’s explicit references to Artaud, by relating Artaud’s manifesto for The Theatre of Cruelty to deconstruction as well as Derrida’s concerns with the metaphysics of presence. Parallel to this recontextualization of Artaud, Derrida’s own philosophy shares similarities to the way Artaud approaches the problem of metaphysical limitation, often playing out similarly to acts in a play. Thus, I argue there is a clear connection to be made between performativity and deconstruction.