Antonin Artaud

French poet, actor, and director. Born on September 4th in Marseille into an old shipping family. He contracted meningitis at the age of five and continued to suffer from neurological disorders, but began writing poetry in high school. In 1920, he went to Paris for treatment, where he met Lunier Pau and others. The following year, in 1921, he made his stage debut at the Époque Theatre, joined Durand and Pitoeff's theater companies, and also appeared in films. At the same time, he published the poetry collections "Sugoroku of the Sky" (1923), "Navel of the Underworld" and "Scales of the Nerves" (1925). In "Correspondence" (1924) with Rivière, editor-in-chief of "NRF (New French Criticism)," he complained of "the central collapse of the soul." After joining the Surrealist movement, he founded the Theatre de Jarry with Bitrac and Aron in 1927, calling for theatrical reform. While appearing in films such as The Passion of Joan of Arc, he solidified his idea of ​​"theatre of cruelty," and in 1935 he directed and starred in his own work The Cenci, achieving his goal. In 1936, he visited the indigenous Tarahumara people of Mexico in search of the origins of culture, but the following year, during a trip to Ireland, he became delirious, and thereafter wrote a large number of works while in a psychiatric hospital. In particular, Van Gogh, a Suicide of Society (1947) won the Prix Sainte-Beuve, and his Theatre and Its Double (1938), a collection of lectures and critiques from the 1930s, was also highly praised in later years. He died alone of rectal cancer on March 4, 1948, in a sanatorium in Ivry, near Paris.

His theory of theatre rejected Western civilisation, which had been poisoned by modern rationalism, and sought to reconsider theatre back to its origins, such as Eastern theatre and magic, and to elevate it to a form of expression liberated from utilitarian language. It had a major influence on avant-garde theatre after the Second World War.

[Ando Shinya]

"Theatre and its Metaphysics" by Artaud, translated by Shinya Ando (1965, Hakusuisha) " ▽ "Antonin Artaud, translated by Shinya Ando (1976, Hakusuisha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランスの詩人、俳優、演出家。9月4日マルセイユの海運業の旧家に生まれる。5歳で髄膜炎にかかり、以後神経障害に苦しみ続けながら、高等中学時代から詩作を始める。1920年に治療のためパリに上り、リュニエ・ポーらと知り合い、翌1921年制作座で初舞台を踏み、デュランやピトエフの劇団に加わり、映画にも出演する。同時に詩集『空の双六(すごろく)』（1923）、『冥府(めいふ)の臍(へそ)』『神経の秤(はかり)』（1925）を発表。『NRF(エヌエルエフ)（新フランス評論）』の編集長リビエールとの『往復書簡』（1924）では「魂の中心的崩壊」を訴える。シュルレアリスム運動に加わったのち、1927年にビトラック、アロンとともに「ジャリ劇場」を創立して演劇の改革を叫ぶ。また『裁かるるジャンヌ』などの映画に出演しながら、「残酷演劇」の構想を固め、1935年に自作の『チェンチ一族』を演出、主演し、その実現を図る。1936年に文化の原点を求めてメキシコの先住民タラウマラを訪れるが、翌1937年アイルランド旅行中に錯乱状態となり、以後は精神科病院内で膨大な著作を残した。とくに『ファン・ゴッホ、社会の自殺者』（1947）はサント・ブーブ賞を受け、1930年代の講演や評論を集めた『演劇とその分身』（1938）も後年高く評価される。1948年3月4日パリ近郊のイブリの療養所で直腸癌(がん)のため孤独のうちに死ぬ。

　近代合理主義に毒された西欧文明を否定し、東洋演劇や呪術(じゅじゅつ)など、演劇をその発生の根源にさかのぼって考え直し、功利的な言語から解放された表現に高めようとするその演劇論は、第二次世界大戦後の前衛劇などに大きな影響を与えた。

［安堂信也］

『アルトー著、安堂信也訳『演劇とその形而上学』（1965・白水社）』▽『ブロー著、安堂信也訳『アントナン・アルトー』（1976・白水社）』

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