Mack Lecture: Sylvère Lotringer on Antonin Artaud
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- Cultural theorist Sylvère Lotringer will speak on Antonin Artaud, one of the most influential thinkers of the modernist period. He will discuss his forthcoming book, Mad Like Artaud, and will screen a selection from his new film project, The Man Who Disappeared.
As Lotringer describes, “Actor, dramaturge, poet, art critic, playwright and theorist, Antonin Artaud suffered early on from intense mental and physical dissociations. Arriving in Paris in 1922, he complained that something was destroying his thoughts and robbing him of the words that he had found. And yet these acute mental symptoms, which he controlled as best he could by using opiates, opened up the possibility of investigating ‘all the names of history’ (Nietzsche), ‘performing’ their works and predicament as if they were his own. In that way he managed to become, among others, Paolo Uccello, Pierre Abelard, Heliogabalus, Gérard de Nerval, Baudelaire, Edgar Allen Poe, and Vincent Van Gogh. And these names in turn became his own doubles. The black hole of his identity, from which he suffered so much-Susan Sontag said that Artaud offered the greatest quantity of suffering in the history of literature-also became an irresistible invitation for his readers to become Artaud clones.”
Copresented with Midway Contemporary Art and Univocal Publishing.
About the Speaker
Sylvère Lotringer, a literary critic and cultural theorist, is professor emeritus of French literature and philosophy at Columbia University and Jean Baudrillard Chair at the European Graduate School. As the founder of the independent press Semiotext(e), he was instrumental in introducing French theory to the United States. Lotringer’s contributions range from philosophy, literature, and art to architecture, anthropology, and avant-garde movements. His publications include Antonin Artaud (Scribners & Sons, 1990), Nancy Spero (Phaidon Press, 1996); French Theory in America (Routledge, 2001); The Miserables (Semiotext(e), 2014); and Mad Like Artaud (Univocal, 2015), among many others. He has made three films: How to Shoot a Crime, with Chris Kraus (1985); Violent Femmes (1999), and The Man Who Disappeared (2015).
Sylvere Lotringer is a beacon of truth and knowledge. His Semiotexte books have been guiding my heart and mind through the current paroxysm and reemergence of fascism in the post Coronavirus world that we all are being forced to inhabit. Long live Artaud. Long live Lotringer.
Jacques Lacan, Leon Fouks, and Jacques Latrimoliere voted down this video.
Lotringer. Where are you? I'd like to share something with you. Non one will listen to me.
Well, I WOULD make a literal comparison between Christ and Artaud, because unlike the myth, Artaud actually existed. And yes, Christ DID condemn whole populations of people! "I come [back] not with peace but with a sword." Artaud exposed the lie of many things, including "Jesus meek and mild" and the Trinity metaphorically being one happy family when it was a cobbled-together pagan ripoff. Latrémolière is just the kind of person who Artaud said was dead and in need of his Theatre of Cruelty.
You make a good point - I know you don't mean Artaud is a god, but HIS suffering is so much more than Christ's. Why do we worship gods in this day in age after poets like Artaud have shown us another path?
@@kevinblack3339 What really gets me is the dialogue with Latremoliere - he's so infuriating! I wish he was alive so I could tell him I started writing a sci fi novel but Antonin Artaud (who I started reading at that time) invaded my book and took it over! "Not be discussing Artaud in 50 years," right. A man who died before I was born took over my writing!
Artaud is still ahead of his time. Of course we here in the USA are way behind people in France in dealing with the dark side of life.
The difference between Jesus and Artaud is that Jesus is not a martyr and Artaud is, and Artaud is not a hypocrite and Jesus is.
Artaud dived deep into the depths of the human condition, artistic expression and religious experience. Whereas Jesus was only a blasphemer.
Artaud experienced life at the extreme whereas Jesus didn't experience much at all, except for his alleged crucifixion.
The interviewer has a hard time finding a focus in what he wants to express. Difficult subject, no doubt. All in all - informative lecture, thanks.
I thought the lecture straightforward, but I've been reading Artaud for almost 30 years. I hope you continue to pursue this subject, because it's really not as difficult as it seems - it's ultimately not intellectual, but visceral. Also explore the poems of Robert Desnos, Artaud's greatest friend and the one who saved him from starvation at Ville-Evrard. (They don't mention Ville-Evrard, but Artaud was transferred to Rodez from there at the edge of malnutrition.)
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