Antonin Artaud

Robert Gillan (University of Manchester)
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Over a period of some thirty years Antonin Artaud worked as a theatre director and theorist, poet, actor, visual artist, translator and critic. The uncompromising sincerity with which he expressed his vision of the world, coupled with recurrent psychological problems, led to several periods of hospitalization including a forcible detention lasting nine years. The details of his work are inextricably linked with those of his life, and the extraordinary qualities of both make him one of the most compelling and complicated figures of twentieth-century French literature.

Artaud was born in Marseilles on 4 September 1896 to a Greek mother and a French father. His childhood was marked by a number of traumatic events, including an attack of meningitis around 1901 and the death of his sister in

2965 words

Citation: Gillan, Robert. "Antonin Artaud". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 February 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=159, accessed 19 March 2024.]

159 Antonin Artaud 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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