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Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896–March 4, 1948) was a playwright, actor, and director. In his book Theatre and its Double, Artaud expressed his admiration for Eastern forms of theatre, particularly the Balinese Theatre. He admired Eastern theatre because of the codified, highly ritualized physicality of Balinese dance performance, and advocated what he called a "Theatre of Cruelty". By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, lies like a shroud over our perceptions. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theatre made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. He also believed that sexual activity, including masturbation, was harmful to the creative process and should be avoided if one hoped to achieve purity in their art. Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space. Although he advocated a system of "social therapy" through theatre, Artaud was institutionalized for some time because he was considered insane. :The Theatre of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be understood. This cruelty, which will be bloody when necessary but not systematically so, can thus be identified with a kind of severe moral purity which is not afraid to pay life the price it must be paid." :– Antonin Artaud, The Theatre of Cruelty, in The Theory of the Modern Stage. Edited by E. Bentley. Penguin, 1968, p.66

An outline of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty

#Artaud had a pessimistic view of the world, but he believed that theatre could effect change. #Remove the audience from the everyday and use symbolic objects to work with the emotions and soul of the audience. #Attack the audience's senses through an array of technical methods and acting so that the audience would be brought out of their desensitisation and have to confront themselves. #Use the grotesque, the ugly and pain in order to confront an audience, thereby being cruel to them.

Biographical Information

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud was born in Marseille on September 4th, 1896. He died in Paris in 1948. Antonin is a diminutive form of Antoine (little Anthony), and was among a long list of names which Artaud went by throughout his life. Although his mother had many children, only Antoine, his brother and his sister survived infancy. At the age of four, Antonin had a severe attack of meningitis. The virus gave Antonin a nervous, irritable temperament throughout adolescence. He also suffered from neuralgia, stammering and severe bouts of depression. Artaud's parents arranged a long series of sanatorium stays for their disruptive son, which were both prolonged and expensive. They lasted five years, with a break of two months, June and July 1916, when Artaud was conscripted into the army. He was discharged due to his self-induced habit of sleepwalking. During Artaud's "rest cures" at the sanatorium he read Rimbaud, Baudelaire and Poe. In May 1919 the director of the sanatorium, Dr. Dardel, perscribed opium for Artaud, precipitating a lifelong addiction to that and other drugs. In March 1920 Artaud moved to Paris. In November 1926 Artaud was expelled from the surrealist movement and also wrote his manifesto titled Manifesto for an Abortive Theatre. Artaud cultivated a great interest in cinema as well, working in films such as Abel Gance's Napoleon in the role of Jean Paul Marat and Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc as the monk Jean Massieu. Artaud's portrayal of Marat is a perfect example of melodrama in silent film. He used exagerrated movements to convey the fire of Marat's personality, a technique that he would employ later in the Theatre and its Double, as well as in his adaptation of The Cenci. The 1930's saw the publication of The Theatre and Its Double, as well as the release of Artaud's only theatrical production: The Cenci. The Cenci was a commercial failure as the audience did not respond favorably to his Theatre of Cruelty. The production featured an odd assortment of sound effects and at one performance, Artaud played Count Cenci as a dog, coming on stage on all fours, barking his lines. After the production failed, Artaud received a grant to travel to Mexico where he was a guest lecturer. He also studied the Tarahumara and experimented with the drug peyote, recording his experiences which were later released in a volume called "The Peyote Dance". The content of this work closely resembles the poems of his later days, concerned primarily with the supernatural. In 1937, Artaud returned to France where he obtained a walking stick of knotted wood that he believed belonged to St. Patrick. Artaud sought to return the staff to the Irish. It must be noted that he spoke very little English and he was unable to make himself understood. The majority of his trip was spent in a hotel room that he was unable to pay for. On the return trip from Ireland, Artaud was arrested and put in a straight-jacket. The return from Ireland brought about the beginning of the final phase of Artaud's life, which was spent in different asylums. When France was occupied by the Nazis, friends of Artaud had him transferred to the Psychiatric hospital in Rodez, well inside Vichy territory, where he was put under the charge of Dr.Gaston Ferdière. Ferdière began administering electroshock treatments, to eliminate Artaud's symptoms, that included crafting "spells" and drawing distubing images. The treatments were ultimately not helpful. In 1946, Ferdière released Artaud to his friends who placed him in the psychiatric clinic at Ivry-sur-Seine. Artaud was encouraged to write by his friends and interest in his work was rekindled. He recorded "Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu", a production based on his poem "Artaud le Momo" for French Radio which was shelved due to the obscene subject matter of the text and general randomness of the cacophony of xylophonic sounds mixed with various percussive elements. In January of 1948 Artaud was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. On March 4th, 1948 Artaud died, alone in his pavilion, seated at the foot of his bed, holding his shoe. It was suspected that he died from a lethal dose of the drug chloral, although whether or not he took it knowing it was a lethal dose is not known.

Selected works

- The Theater and Its Double published by Grove Press
- The Artaud Anthology published by City Lights Publishers
- Artaud: Blows and Bombs by Stephen Barber
- Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings by A. Artaud and Susan Sontag, published by University of California Press
- Watchfiends & Rack Screams: Works from the Final Period by Antonin Artaud, Clayton Eshleman (Editor), Bernard Bador (Editor), published by Exact Change
- The Monk (The Modern Classics Series) by A. Artaud and Matthew Lewis, published by Creation Books
- Heliogabalus : Or, The Crowned Anarchist (Creation Modern Classics) by A. Artaud, published by Creation Books

External links

- [http://www.ubu.com/sound/artaud.html Antonin Artaud at UbuWeb]
- [http://www.antoninartaud.org/home.html Antonin Artaud: Poet, essayist, playwright, actor & director]
- [http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/a/antonin.html My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud: A Film Review by James Berardinelli]
- [http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/issues/83/960329/AE/Story2.html Artaud biography rages around Paris]

Quotes

- "Artaud believed that damage was being inflicted on him by malicious activities . . . He was convinced there had been gatherings of Mexicans, Tibetan lamas, and Rabbis to weaken him by masturbating collectively. He wanted to retaliate by leading a party of fifty friends, armed with machine-guns, to Tibet." -Ronald Hayman. "Artaud and After"
- "Repent! Why? Repentance is in God's hands. It is up to him to rue my actions. Why did he make me the father of a being whom I desire so utterly? Before anyone condemns my crime, let them accuse Fate. Are we free? Who can maintain we are free when the heavens are ready to fall on us? I have opened the floodgates so as not to be engulfed. There is a devil within me destined to avenge the world's sins. No fate can prevent me carrying out my dreams now." -Antonin Artaud. "Les Cenci"
- "To attempt a comprehensive account of Artaud's influence would be like trying to map the currents in an ocean." -Ronald Hayman. "Artaud and After"
- "The course of all recent serious theatre in Europe and the Americas can be said to divide into two periods - before Artaud and after Artaud." -Susan Sontag
- "It is essential to put an end to the subjugation of the theatre to the text, and to recover the notion of a kind of unique language half-way between gesture and thought." -Antonin Artaud. "The Theatre and its Double"
- "The cruelty that Artaud names his theatre after is not the common and vulgar physical definition of cruelty, at least not exclusively; it is creating a spectacle that, because of the state of degeneration he thinks we have fallen into, must by necessity be so excruciatingly powerful as to wake us up from our slumber and give us a new understanding of what it is to be alive. It is a metaphysical cruelty." -Mitchell Tribbett. "Necessary Cruelty"
- "Electroconvulsive therapy, Mr. Latremoliere, reduces me to despair, it takes away my memory, it dulls my mind and my heart, it turns me into someone who is absent and who knows he is absent and sees himself for weeks in pursuit of his being, like a dead man alongside a living man who is no longer himself, but who insists on the dead man being present even though he can no longer enter into him. After the last series I remained throughout the months of August and September absolutely incapable of working, thinking, and feeling that I was alive." -Antonin Artaud. "To Jacques Latremoliere." Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin Artaud, Antonin ja:アントナン・アルトー

1896

1896 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

- January 4 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
- January 5 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- January 12 - H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.
- January 18 - The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
- February 1 - The opera La bohème premieres (Turin).
- February 1 - Walter Arnold, of Kent, England, is fined for speeding in excess of the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph
- February 11 - Oscar Wilde's play Salomé premieres in Paris.
- March 1 - With the Battle of Adowa, Ethiopia defends its independence from Italy.
- April 3 - First edition of Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport is published.
- April 6 - Opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games.

May - August

- May 8 - Cricket: Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.
- May 18 - The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Plessy v Ferguson, introducing the "separate but equal" doctrine.
- May 26 - Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- May 27 - The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, incurring $2.9 billion (1997 USD) in damages, killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.
- June 12 - J.T. Hearne sets a record for the earliest date of taking 100 wickets. It is equalled by Charlie Parker in 1931.
- June 15 - ? Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27.000
- July 9 - William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.
- July 11 - Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada's seventh prime minister.
- August 16 - Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike.
- August 27 - The shortest war in the world - 9.02 - 9.40 between Britain and Zanzibar

September - December

- October 3 - Dalton brothers try to rob two banks but only Emmet Dalton survives the shootout
- October 5 - After a long siege, Brazilian government troops take Canudos in north Brazil, crushing Antonio Conselheiro and his followers
- November - William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election.
- November 6 - Hale Johnson runs as vice-presidential candidate for Prohibition Party.
- November 16 - Cherry Sisters perform in Olympia Music Hall in New York City. At first audience is stunned but then begins to answer with catcalls...
- December 30 - Jose Rizal, Filipino scholar and poet, executed in the Philippines

Unknown dates

- Nepalese archaeologists rediscover the great stone pillar of Ashoka at Lumbini, using Fa Xian's records.
- Pontifical University of Maynooth is established by decree of the Vatican
- France establishes an administrative post in Abengourou, Côte d'Ivoire.
- Formation of the New York Telephone Company
- The great Realignment of the Republican Party of the United States of America

Births

- January 2 - Dziga Vertov, Russian filmmaker (d. 1954)
- January 4 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
- January 4 - André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)
- January 12 - Rex Ingram, Irish director and actor (d. 1950)
- January 14 - Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist (d. 1984)
- January 14 - John Dos Passos, American author (d. 1970)
- January 20 - George Burns, American comedian (d. 1996)
- January 23 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
- February 18 - André Breton, French writer (d. 1966)
- February 28 - Philip Showalter Hench, Americah physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
- February 29 - Morarji Desai, Indian politician (d. 1995)
- March 1 - Dimitri Mitropoulos, Greek conductor, pianist, and composer (d. 1960)
- March 20 - Wilfrid Reid "Wop" May, Canadian World War I pilot (d. 1952)
- March 29 - Wilhelm Ackermann, German mathematician (d. 1962)
- April 15 - Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov, Russian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- April 30 - Gary Davis, American musician (d. 1972)
- May 30 - Howard Hawks, American director (d. 1977)
- June 7 - Robert S. Mulliken, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- June 7 - Douglas Campbell, American World War I flying ace (d. 1990)
- June 19 - Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor (d. 1986)
- July 2 - Quirino Cristiani, Argentine animated film director (d. 1984)
- July 16 - Trygve Lie, first United Nations Secretary General (d. 1968)
- August 9 - Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (d. 1980)
- August 15 - Gerty Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1957)
- August 18 - Jack Pickford, American actor (d. 1933)
- August 30 - Raymond Massey, Canadian-born actor (d. 1983)
- September 24 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (d. 1940)
- October 1 - Liaquat Ali Khan, first Prime Minister of Pakistan (d. 1951)
- October 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
- October 28 - Howard Hanson, American composer (d. 1981)
- October 31 - Ethel Waters, American singer and actress (d. 1977)
- November 8 - Bucky Harris, baseball player (d. 1977)
- November 10 - Jimmy Dykes, baseball player and manager (d. 1976)
- November 13 - Nobusuke Kishi, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1987)
- November 14 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States of America (d. 1979)
- November 16 - Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists (d. 1980)
- November 17 - Lev Vygotsky, Russian psychologist (d. 1934)
- December 5 - Carl Ferdinand Cori, Austrian-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1984)
- December 6 - Ira Gershwin, American lyricist (d. 1983)
- December 14 - Jimmy Doolittle, American World War II general (d. 1993)
- December 21 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (d. 1971)

Deaths

- January 4 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
- January 8 - Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (b. 1844)
- April 30 - Hamilton Disston, Floridan developer (b. 1844)
- May 20 - Clara Schumann, German composer (b. 1819)
- August 10 - Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (b. 1848)
- August 17 - Bridget Driscoll, world's first automobile fatality
- October 11 - Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (b. 1824)
- October 11 - Edward White Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1829)
- October 23 - ? Columbus Delano, American statesman (b. 1809)
- December 10 - Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor of dynamite and creator of the Nobel Prize (b. 1833)
- December 30 - José Rizal, national hero of the Philippines (b. 1861)

Marriages

- February 20 - W.W. Denslow & Ann Waters Holden
- April 6 - Benjamin Harrison & Mary Scott Lord Dimmick
- April 8 - Jeanne Calment & Fernand Calment
- June 5 - Valborg Borchsenius & Johannes Norden Guldbrandsen
- June 26 - Jennette Lee & Gerald Stanley Lee
- July 22 - Queen Maud & King Haakon VII
- September 1 - W.S. Weatherwax & Anna L. Wallis
- October 15 - Lewis J. Selznick & Florence Flossie Sachs
- October 24 - King Victor Emmanuel III & Helen Petrovic-Njegos
- October 26 - Charles Fort & Anna Filing
- November 4 - Roberto Vittiglio & Wilhelmine Westphal
- December 1 - Neel Doff & Fernand Brouez Category:1896 ko:1896년 simple:1896 th:พ.ศ. 2439

March 4

March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). There are 302 days remaining. The United States Constitution originally provided that the President of the United States was to be inaugurated on this date, starting in 1793 and then repeating every four years until 1933. In 1933, the 20th Amendment changed the presidential inauguration date to January 20.

Events

- 303 or 304 - Martyrdom of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia.
- 1152 - Frederick I Barbarossa is elected King of the Germans.
- 1461 - Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI is deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then becomes King Edward IV.
- 1665 - Start of the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
- 1681 - Charles II of England grants a land charter to William Penn for the area that will later become Pennsylvania.
- 1789 - In New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States is in effect.
- 1789 to 1933 - US Inauguration Day
- 1790 - France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.
- 1791 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
- 1804 - The Battle of Vinegar Hill, colony of New South Wales (Australia)
- 1837 - Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.
- 1848 - Carlo Alberto di Savoia signs the Statuto Albertino that will represent the first constitution of the Regno d'Italia
- 1861 - The "Stars and Bars" is adopted as the flag of the Confederate States of America.
- 1877 - Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
- 1877 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.
- 1881 - A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes story, begins.
- 1902 - In Chicago, the American Automobile Association is established.
- 1904 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
- 1913 - The United States Department of Commerce and United States Department of Labor are established by splitting the duties of the 10-year-old Dept. of Commerce and Labor.
- 1917 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first female member of the United States House of Representatives.
- 1933 - Frances Perkins becomes United States Secretary of Labor, first female member of the United States Cabinet.
- 1933 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlines his "New Deal" in his inauguration speech.
- 1933 - The Parliament of Austria is suspended because of a quibble over procedure - Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss initiates authoritarian rule by decree (see Austrofascism)
- 1941 - Britain launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.
- 1944 - In Ossining, New York, Louis Buchalter, the leader of 1930s crime syndicate Murder, Inc., is executed at Sing Sing.
- 1946 - The Voice Of Frank Sinatra, the first Frank Sinatra album ever, is released by Columbia Records.
- 1954 - Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston announces the first successful kidney transplant.
- 1963 - In Paris six people are sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate President Charles de Gaulle.
- 1966 - John Lennon says, "We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus" which sparks controversy in the United States.
- 1975 - Charlie Chaplin is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II of England.
- 1977 - The 1977 Bucharest Earthquake in southern and eastern Europe kills more than 1,500.
- 1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger forming Time-Warner.
- 1993 - Authorities announce the capture of suspected World Trade Center bombing conspirator Mohammad Salameh.
- 1994 - Four terrorists are convicted for their roles in the World Trade Center bombing which killed six and injured more than a thousand.
- 1995 - The World Summit on Social Development begins in Copenhagen.
- 1997 - United States President Bill Clinton bars federal funding for any research on human cloning.
- 1998 - Gay rights: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex.
- 1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book detailing her affair with Bill Clinton goes on sale in the United States.
- 1999 - In a military court, Captain Richard Ashby of the United States Marines is acquitted of the charge of reckless flying which resulted in the deaths of 20 skiers in the Italian Alps when his low-flying jet hit a gondola cable.
- 2004 - The files of Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun are released to the public five years after his death.
- 2004 - FIFA reveals its list of 100 Greatest Living Footballers (otherwise known as the "FIFA 100").
- 2005 - The car of released Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena is fired on by US soldiers in Iraq, causing the death of one passenger and injuring two more.
- 2005 - Carly Kirkwood begins her role as the new presenter of TV3 New Zealand's highly successful, late-night news show: Nightline.

Births

- 1394 - Prince Henry the Navigator, Portuguese patron of exploration (d. 1460)
- 1492 - Francesco de Layolle, Italian composer
- 1651 - John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, Lord Chancellor of England (d. 1716)
- 1665 - Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, Swedish soldier
- 1678 - Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (d. 1741)
- 1719 - George Pigot, Baron Pigot, British governor of Madras (d. 1777)
- 1793 - Karl Lachmann, German philologist (d. 1851)
- 1826 - Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (d. 1863)
- 1876 - Léon-Paul Fargue, French poet (d. 1947)
- 1877 - Garrett Morgan, American inventor (d. 1963)
- 1888 - Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (d. 1931)
- 1897 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (d. 1969)
- 1901 - Charles Goren, bridge expert (d. 1991)
- 1903 - Luis Carrero Blanco, Spanish statesman (d. 1973)
- 1904 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)
- 1906 - Meindert DeJong American author of children's books (d. 1991)
- 1909 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur (d. 1997)
- 1913 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)
- 1914 - Ward Kimball, American animator (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Hans Eysenck, German-born psychologist (d. 1997)
- 1925 - Paul Mauriat, French musician
- 1928 - Alan Sillitoe, American writer
- 1929 - Bernard Haitink, Dutch conductor
- 1932 - Miriam Makeba, South African singer
- 1932 - Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, American custom car designer (d. 2001)
- 1934 - Janez Strnad, Slovenian physicist
- 1935 - Bent Larsen, Danish chess player
- 1936 - Jim Clark, Scottish race car driver (d. 1968)
- 1938 - Don Perkins, American football player
- 1939 - Paula Prentiss, American actress
- 1941 - Adrian Lyne, English director
- 1942 - Charles C. Krulak, 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps
- 1947 - Jan Garbarek, Norwegian musician
- 1948 - Chris Squire, British musician (Yes)
- 1948 - James Ellroy, American writer
- 1950 - Rick Perry, Governor of Texas
- 1950 - Billy Gibbons, English musician (ZZ Top)
- 1951 - Kenny Dalglish Scottish footballer and football manager
- 1951 - Chris Rea, British singer and musician
- 1954 - Willie Thorne, English snooker player
- 1954 - Adrian Zmed, American actor and dancer
- 1954 - Catherine O'Hara, Canadian actress, comedienne
- 1954 - Irina Ratushinskaya, Russian writer
- 1958 - Patricia Heaton, American actress
- 1960 - Mykelti Williamson, American actor
- 1961 - Ray Mancini, American boxer
- 1962 - Steven Weber, American actor
- 1963 - Jason Newsted, American bassist (Metallica)
- 1965 - Gary Helms, American kickboxer
- 1966 - Kevin Johnson, American basketball player
- 1966 - Grand Puba, American rapper
- 1967 - Evan Dando, American musician
- 1968 - Patsy Kensit, English actress
- 1982 - Landon Donovan, American soccer player
- 1987 - Ding Junhui, Chinese snooker player

Deaths

- 1193 - Saladin, Turkish sultan (b. 1137)
- 1238 - Joan of England, queen of Alexander II of Scotland (b. 1210)
- 1484 - Saint Casimir, Prince of Poland (b. 1458)
- 1496 - Archduke Sigismund of Austria (b. 1427)
- 1604 - Fausto Paolo Sozzini, Italian theologian (b. 1539)
- 1615 - Hans von Aachen, German painter (b. 1552)
- 1619 - Anne of Denmark, queen of James I of England, (b. 1574)
- 1710 - Louis III, Prince of Condé (b. 1668)
- 1733 - Claude de Forbin, French naval commander (b. 1656)
- 1793 - Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre, French admiral (b. 1725)
- 1795 - John Collins, American politician (b. 1717)
- 1805 - Jean-Baptiste Greuze, French painter (b. 1725)
- 1832 - Jean-François Champollion, French egyptologist (b. 1790)
- 1852 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (b. 1809)
- 1858 - Matthew Perry, U.S. naval officer (b. 1794)
- 1868 - Jesse Chisholm, American pioneer (b. 1805)
- 1941 - Ludwig Quidde, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1858)
- 1946 - Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Danish big-game hunter (b. 1886)
- 1948 - Antonin Artaud, French actor, director, and author (b. 1896)
- 1952 - Charles Scott Sherrington, English physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857)
- 1959 - Maxey Long, American athlete (b. 1878)
- 1963 - William Carlos Williams, American poet (b. 1883)
- 1977 - Andrés Caicedo, Colombian writer (b. 1951)
- 1979 - Willi Unsoeld, American mountain climber (b. 1926)
- 1986 - Richard Manuel, Canadian musician (b. 1943)
- 1990 - Hank Gathers, American basketball player (b. 1967)
- 1994 - John Candy, Canadian comedian and actor, (b. 1950)
- 1996 - Minnie Pearl, American comedienne (b. 1912)
- 1999 - Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (b. 1908)
- 1999 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (b. 1921)
- 2001 - Glenn Hughes, American musician (The Village People)
- 2001 - Harold Stassen, American politician (b. 1907)
- 2003 - Jaba Ioseliani, Georgian politician and bank robber (b. 1926)
- 2004 - John McGeoch, Scottish musician (Siouxsie and the Banshees and Public Image Ltd.) (b. 1955)
- 2004 - Claude Nougaro, French singer (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Nicola Calipari, Italian secret service agent (b. 1953)

Holidays and observances

- Catholicism - Feast day of St Casimir
- Mauritius - Maha Shivaratree

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/4 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.tnl.net/when/3/4 Today in History: March 4] ---- March 3 - March 5 - February 4 - April 4 -- listing of all days ko:3월 4일 ms:4 Mac ja:3月4日 simple:March 4 th:4 มีนาคม

Playwright

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is someone who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance. The term is not a variant spelling of playwrite, but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). Hence the prefix and the suffix combine to indicate someone who crafts plays. The homophone with write is in this case coincidental.

History

The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are Ancient Greeks with some of the earliest plays being written around the5th century BC. These playwrights are notable as they established forms that are still relied on by modern playwrights. Notable among them are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. Shakespeare is considered to have written classical tragedies and comedies which lots of other work is based on. For example, Kiss Me Kate is based on The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet has been remade more times than can be counted. Many playwrights are never known because only historical successes and current successes such as Broadway hits become known. Many more off-Broadway, off-off Broadway, student playwrights, and plays that never see the light of day, among others, are still playwrights even if they never achieve commercial or popular success. Contemporarily, successful playwrights – in stark contrast to the lot of the screenwriter — are often high-status figures in their industry. This is a corollary of the more literary approach that has characterised the theatre since its roots in poetry. The form has a greater reverence for the text and is much less oriented around a director. The playwright’s vision often takes precedence. In recent years this attitude has started to be slowly overhauled. A less rigidly formal approach to text for performance is now common, informed by practitioners like Jerzy Grotowski, Joan Littlewood and her protégé Mike Leigh. Documentary plays are also a common feature of the theatrical landscape since the middle of the Twentieth Century when they were employed, often tendentiously, in agit-prop or general political protest. These plays demand something different of a playwright, often the editing and reproduction of the other people’s words within a narrative structure. A recent example is Stuff Happens, David Hare’s 2004 play about the Iraq War, in which many of the speeches were taken verbatim from George W. Bush, Tony Blair et al.

External links

- [http://www.playwriting101.com/ Playwriting 101] - A playwriting tutorial written by playwright and screenwriter Jon Dorf. ja:劇作家 Category:Media occupations Category:Theatre

Actor

An actor is a person who acts, or plays a role, in an artistic production. The term commonly refers to someone working in movies, television, live theatre, or radio, and can occasionally denote a street entertainer. Besides playing dramatic roles, actors may also sing or dance or work only on radio or as a voice artist. A female actor may be known as an actress, although some prefer the term "actor", using it as a gender-neutral term. An actor usually plays a fictional character. In the case of a true story (or a fictional story that portrays real people) an actor may play a real person (or a fictional version of the same). Occasionally, actors appear as themselves.

Etymology

"Actor" is directly from the masculine Latin noun actor (feminine, actrix) from the verb agere "to do, to drive, to pass time" + the suffix -or "so./st. who performs the action indicated by the stem". Alternatively from Greek (aktor), leader, from the verb (agō), to lead or carry, to convey, to bring.

History

The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 B.C. (probably on 23 November, though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first person to speak words as a character in a play. The machinations of storytelling were immediately revolutionized. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were told in song and dance and in third person narrative, but no one had assumed the role of a character in a story. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical myth to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention. However, this negative perception dramaticaly changed in 20th Century as acting became an honored and popular profession and art. Part of the reason is due to the rise of the popular appeal and access to dramatic film entertainment and the resulting rise of the movie star in social status and the large salaries they commanded. The combination of public presence and wealth had a profound rehabilitation to the image. In the past, only men could become actors. In the ancient and medieval world, it was considered disgraceful for a woman to go on the stage, and this belief continued right up until the 17th century, when in Venice it was broken. In the time of William Shakespeare, women's roles were played by men or boys, though there is some evidence to suggest that women disguised as men also (illegally) performed.

Actresses in male roles

Women actors sometimes play the roles of prepubescent boys, because in some regards a woman has a closer resemblance to a boy than does a man. The role of Peter Pan, for example, is traditionally played by a woman. The tradition of the principal boy in pantomime may be compared. An adult playing a child occurs more in theater than in film. The exception to this is voice actors in animated films, where boys are generally voiced by women, as heard in "The Simpsons". Opera has several 'pants roles' traditionally sung by women, usually mezzo-sopranos. Examples are Hansel in Hansel und Gretel, and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. Mary Pickford played the part of Little Lord Fauntleroy in the first film version of the book. Linda Hunt won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in The Year of Living Dangerously, in which she played the part of a man. Having an actor play the opposite sex for comic effect is also a long standing tradition in comic theatre and film. Most of Shakespeare's comedies include instances of cross dressing, and both Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams appeared in hit comedy films where they were required to play most scenes dressed as women. Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon famously posed as women to escape gangsters in the Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot.

Techniques of acting

Actors employ a variety of techniques that are learned through training and experience. Some of these are: #The rigorous use of the voice to communicate a character's lines and express emotion. This is achieved through attention to diction and projection through correct breathing and articulation. It is also achieved through the tone and emphasis that an actor puts on words #Physicalisation of a role in order to create a believable character for the audience and to use the acting space appropriately and correctly #Use of gesture to complement the voice, interact with other actors and to bring emphasis to the words in a play, as well as having symbolic meaning Shakespeare is believed to have been commenting on the acting style and techniques of his era when Hamlet gives his famous advice to the players:

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, the whirlwind of passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise: I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant; it out-herods Herod: pray you, avoid it.

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance: o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure. Now this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.

O, reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them; for there be of them that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that's villanous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready.

Acting awards

- Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, for film
- Golden Globe Awards for film and television
- Emmy Awards for television
- Genie Awards for film
- Gemini Awards for television
- British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for film and television
- Tony Awards for the theatre (specifically, Broadway theatre)
- European Theatre Awards for the theatre
- Laurence Olivier Awards for the theatre
- Screen Actors Guild Awards for film and television

Theatre and its Double

Theatre and its double is a book written by Antonin Artaud. It was written to allow people to understand his theorys behind acting, "feeling is more powerful than words".

Eastern

The term Eastern can have multiple meanings depending on its context. Most modern uses of the term refer to Eastern philosophy, the Eastern world, Eastern history or ancient Asian culture, typically also including those countries whose ethnic identity and their dominant culture derive from ancient Asian culture. Thus, in various contexts, the term "Eastern" may refer to something that came from the East. Culturally, the term is usually associated with a tradition that traces its origins to ancient Indian and East Asian thought and religions like Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism and Taoism. Cornerstones in this tradition are beliefs in spiritual, karmic, or ancestral forces. Eastern culture is said to be Daoist in its integration of apparent opposites, as signified by the yin and yang. Eastern culture is sometimes contrasted with Western Culture which is accused of being likely to engage in false dichotomies. (Interestingly, a critique of Western thinking styles using this line of argument is itself subject to accusations of Western-style false dichotomy, since it divides the world into two parts and poses them against one another.) Examples include:
- Eastern bloc
- Eastern district, Hong Kong
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Eastern philosophy

Bali

:This article is about Bali, the Indonesian island. For other uses, see Bali (disambiguation). Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali (disambiguation) Bali is an Indonesian island. Location: . It is positioned in a chain with Java to the west and Lombok to the east. The island is a popular tourist destination and known, along with Java, for its highly developed arts, including dance, sculpture, painting, leather and metalworking, and music, especially that played on the gamelan.

Geography

Bali is part of the Lesser Sunda Islands, 153 km long and 112 km wide (95 by 69 miles), and 3.2 km east of Java. It lies about 8 degrees south of the equator. Its surface is 5,700 km². The highest point of the island is Mount Agung, 3,148 m high (10,308 feet), an active volcano that last erupted in March 1963. Mountains range from the central to the eastern side of the island with Mount Agung being the easternmost peak. Mount Batur, or what remains of it, is also still active. About 30,000 years ago Mount Batur experienced a massive catastrophic eruption — one of the largest known volcanic events on Earth. The principal cities are the northern port of Singaraja and the capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. The town of Ubud (north of Denpasar), with its art market, museums and galleries, is regarded as the cultural center of Bali. In the south the land descends to form an alluvial plain, watered by shallow rivers, dry in the dry season and overflowing whenever there are periods of heavy rains. Its 3 million population is mainly (about 90%) Hindu, but a very small part is Muslim (mostly coastal fisherman). The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (along with its accompanying beach), Sanur, Jimbaran, Seminyak and the newer development of Nusa Dua. The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus joining the southernmost part of the island to the main part of the island. There are no railway lines on the island. There are major coastal roads as well as roads that cross the island mainly in a north-south manner. Due to the slope of the mountainous terrain in the island's center, the roads tend to follow the crests of the ridges across the mountains. The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west tend to have black sand. The beach town of Padangbai in the north east has both: the main beach and the secret beach have white sand and the south beach and the blue lagoon have much darker sand. Pasut Beach (Tabanan), near Sungai Ho and Pura Segara, is a quiet beach lying 14 km southwest of Tabanan. The Ho River is navigable by small sampan. Facing a revitalizing landscape of strong waves, the coast around Pasut is a perfect escape from the crowds. Beautiful black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are now being developed for tourism, but apart from the famous seaside temple of Tanah Lot, this is not yet a tourist area. Most of the Balinese people are involved in agriculture, primarily that of rice cultivation. Other crops such as fruits, vegetables and other cash crops are also grown, although in smaller amounts. A significant number of Balinese are also fishermen. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings and silverware.

History

The Balinese people are descendants of a prehistoric race who migrated through mainland Asia to the Indonesian archipelago, presumably first settling around 2500 BC. The end of the prehistoric period in Indonesia was marked by the arrival of the Hindu people arriving from India around 100 BC as determined by Brahmi inscriptions on potsherds. The name Balidwipa has been discovered from various inscriptions, among others the Blanjong charter which was issued by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 913 AD and mentions the word "Walidwipa". The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on Eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The Majapahit empire collapsed slightly before 1500, due to assaults, causing an exodus to Bali. Europeans first discovered the island when the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived in 1597, though a Portuguese ship had foundered off the coast of Bukit as early as 1585. The Dutch established a trade post soon after, and the Dutch East India Company (VOC) started trading from early 17th century onwards. Dutch control of the island was firmly established after a series of colonial wars (1846–1849). These wars were so fierce (with the entire royal court of the Raja, women and children plunged into battle, armed with kris and spears, killing each other on the battlefield rather than be taken captive) that the Dutch governors afterwards exercised relatively little influence over the island, generally allowing local control over religion and culture to remain intact. International tourism started in the 1920s. Bali's beaches are famous worldwide. Its arts and crafts are also popular. Balinese dance is highly developed, (much more so than European Ballet) and considered by many to be one of the world's finest artistic traditions. "Pendet","Legong" and "Baris" are some of the better-known examples. Bali became part of the Republic of East Indonesia after the World War II Japanese conquest and part of United States of Indonesia in 1948. In 1965, after a failed coup d'etat against the national government, Bali was the scene of widespread killings of members and sympathizers of the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) by right-wing militias, along with several other parts of Indonesia. On October 12 2002, the island was the location of a car bomb attack in the tourist resort of Kuta, killing 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Another series of bombings occurred nearly three years later at Kuta and nearby Jimbaran; see 2005 Bali bombings.

Demographics

Bali is a richly diverse island of approximately 3.57 million people (2003 statistics).

Religion

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, the majority of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed from a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. About 92% of Bali's population adheres to this religion. Other minority religions on the island include Islam (5.7%), Christianity (1.4%), and Buddhism (0.6%) (2003 statistics).

Language

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and many Balinese people are bilingual or even trilingual. English is a common third language owing to the island's large tourism industry. The Balinese language is a rich and diverse language reflecting the population. In the past, the language has been heavily influenced by the Balinese caste system, but this is becoming less and less pronounced.

Culture

Balinese caste system Balinese is famous for the arts, both the performing arts as well as painting, scuplture, and woodcarving. Balinese gamelan is highly developed and varied. Balinese dance includes many famous forms such as legong, baris, topeng, barong, and many others.

External links

- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/southeast_asia/ Average weather conditions]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Bali Bali travel guide] at [http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page Wikitravel]
- [http://ivebeentobalitoo.blogspot.com/ I've been to Bali too (blog looking at real Bali culture)]

References

- Miguel Covarrubias, Island of Bali, 1946. ISBN 9625930604 Category:Islands of Indonesia Category:Provinces of Indonesia ko:발리 섬 ms:Bali ja:バリ島 simple:Bali

Theatre of Cruelty

The Theatre of Cruelty is a concept in Antonin Artaud's book Theatre and its Double. By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, lies like a shroud over our perceptions. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theatre made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space. The Theatre of Cruelty was Artaud's attempt to not only revolutionize theatre, but also it was his attempt to free l'esprit (roughly translated to mean the combination of mind and soul) from the stifling grip of culture. Stephen Barbar notes in his book, Artaud: Blows and Bombs, that "the Theatre of Cruelty has often been called an impossible theatre -- vital for the purity of inspiration which it generated, but hopelessly vague and metaphorical in its concrete detail." This notion of the impossibility of Artaud's theatre has not stopped others from utilizing his principles, most notably by Peter Brook and Jerzy Grotowski. Fantasy author Terry Pratchett wrote a short story named after this concept as part of his Discworld series – see Theatre of Cruelty (Discworld). Category:Theatrical genres

Cruelty

Cruelty is indifference to suffering and even positive pleasure in inflicting it. Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve violence, but violence is not necessary for an act to be cruel. For example, if another person is drowning and begging for help, and you merely watch with disinterested amusement or pleasure, you are being cruel — not violent. Cruelty usually carries connotations of supremacy over a submissive or weaker force. Cruelty is often used in the regards to the treatment of animals, children, and prisoners. See: punishment, draconian, and cruel and unusual punishment. According to Friedrich Nietzsche, almost all higher culture comes from the spiritualization of cruelty.

External Source

- Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, (2003)

Sadism

.]] Sadism is the sexual pleasure or gratification in the infliction of pain and suffering upon another person. The word is derived from the name of the Marquis de Sade, a prolific French philosopher-writer of sadistic novels. The counterpart of sadism is masochism, the sexual pleasure or gratification of having pain or suffering inflicted upon the self, often consisting of sexual fantasies or urges for being beaten, humiliated, bound, tortured, or otherwise made to suffer, either as an enhancement to or a substitute for sexual pleasure. The name is derived from the name of the 19th century author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, known for his novel "Venus in Furs" that dealt with highly masochistic themes. Sadism and masochism, often going together (one person obtaining sadistic pleasure by inflicting pain or suffering on another person who thereby obtains masochistic pleasure), are collectively known as S&M or sadomasochism. The words are now commonly used to describe personality traits in an emotional, rather than sexual sense. Although it is quite different from the original meaning, this usage is not entirely inaccurate. There is quite frequently a strong emotional aspect to the sexual desires, taking the form of a need for domination or submission—the desire to be controlled, or to control another, as opposed to a simple desire for pain (which is technically known as algolagnia). It is often agreed that this desire for dominance or submission is in fact the driving force behind sadomasochism, with the giving and receiving of pain acting only as an active stimulation to reinforce those feelings. This view is supported by the nature of sadomasochistic behavior. A masochist does not in general take pleasure in any arbitrary form of pain, only in pain received under the pretext of enforcing authority, and typically only that of a sexual nature. Likewise, a sadist usually only takes pleasure in pain that is inflicted for reasons of punishment and control, and most often for the indirect pleasure of the masochist. Many sadomasochistic activities involve only mild pain or discomfort. Often they are focused primarily on roleplay.

The biology of S&M

Pain, violence, sex and love all are associated with the release of a variety of hormones and chemicals within the human body. Furthermore, humans have been shown to exhibit sympathetic responses in their bodies while watching, hearing, or imagining such experiences.
- Levels of sex hormone testosterone can be temporarily affected by one's role S&M interactions. Dominant participants often get raised testosterone levels; whereas submissive participants often get depressed testosterone levels.
- Endorphins are released by pain experiences and can be perceived as pleasurable and possibly addictive. It is due to this same release of endorphins that people can become addicted to self harm. In this way, the acts of self harm and engaging in masochistic behavior can be similar in function though most would agree, not in causality.
- Lactic acid is released by muscles under strain and can be perceived as pleasurable.
- Brain chemicals such as serotonin and melatonin can be affected by emotional or stressful experiences.
- Pain can be a stimulator for release of endorphins, the chemicals in your brain which are responsible for pleasure. The effects of being exposed to superficial pain over a period of time can be a "high" caused by a rush of endorphins. Because of this, the physical (if not the sexual) aspects of S&M CAN be addictive. The effects of S&M on body chemistry probably reinforce the behavior and therefore create psychological states that seek to further such behavior.

The psychology of S&M

The terms sadism and masochism were first used consistently to describe these behaviors by the German psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing in his 1886 compilation of case studies Psychopathia Sexualis, a famous study of sexual perversity. Sigmund Freud, a psychoanalyst and a contemporary of Krafft-Ebing, noted that both were often found in the same individuals, and combined the two into a single dichotomous entity known as sadomasochism (often abbreviated as S&M or S/M). This observation is commonly verified in both literature and practice; many sadists and masochists define themselves as "switchable"—capable of taking pleasure in either role. Both Krafft-Ebing and Freud assumed that sadism in men resulted from the distortion of the aggressive component of the male sexual instinct. Masochism in men, however, was seen as a more significant aberration, contrary to the nature of male sexuality. Freud doubted that masochism in men was ever a primary tendency, and speculated that it may exist only as a transformation of sadism. Sadomasochism in women received comparatively little discussion, as it was believed that it occurred primarily in men. Both also assumed that masochism was so inherent to female sexuality that it would be difficult to distinguish as a separate inclination. Havelock Ellis, in Studies in the Psychology of Sex, argued that there is no clear distinction between the aspects of sadism and masochism, and that they may be regarded as complementary emotional states. He also made the important point that sadomasochism is concerned only with pain in regard to sexual pleasure, and not in regard to cruelty, as Freud had suggested. In other words, the sadomasochist generally desires that the pain be inflicted or received in love, not in abuse, for the pleasure of either one or both participants. This mutual pleasure may even be essential for the satisfaction of those involved. Here Ellis touches upon the often paradoxical nature of consensual S&M. It is not only pain to initiate pleasure, but violence—or the simulation of violence—to express love. This contradictory character is perhaps most evident in the observation by some that not only are sadomasochistic activities usually done for the benefit of the masochist, but that it is often the masochist that controls them, through subtle emotional cues received by the sadist. In his essay Coldness and Cruelty, Gilles Deleuze refutes the term 'sadomasochism' as artificial, especially in the context of the prototypical masochistic work, Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs. Deleuze instead argues that the tendency toward masochism is based on desire brought on from the delay of gratification. Taken to its extreme, an infinite delay, this is manifested as perpetual coldness. The masochist derives pleasure from, as Deleuze puts it, The Contract: the process by which he can control another individual and turn the individual into someone cold and callous. The Sadist, in contrast, derives pleasure from The Law: the unavoidable power that places one person below another. The sadist attempts to destroy the ego in an effort to unify the id and superego, in effect gratifying the most base desires the sadist can express while ignoring or competely suppressing the will of the ego, or of the conscience. Thus, Deleuze attempts to argue that Masochism and Sadism arise from such different impulses that the combination of the two terms is meaningless and misleading. The perceived sadistic capabilities of masochists are treated by Deleuze as reactions to masochism. Indeed, in the epilogue of Venus In Furs, the character of Severin has become bitter from his experiment in masochism, and advocates instead the domination of women. Many theorists, particularly feminist theories, have suggested that sadomasochism is an inherent part of modern Western culture. According to their theories, sex and relationships are both consistently taught to be formulated within a framework of male dominance and female submission. Some of them further link this hypothesized framework to inequalities among gender, class, and race which remain a substantial part of society, despite the efforts of the civil rights movement and feminism. However, the degree to which any of these influences actually affect sexuality -- either consciously or unconsciously -- is unknown, and the validity of this theory of socially-conditioned female masochism is questionable. There are a number of reasons commonly given for why a sadomasochist finds the practice of S&M enjoyable, and the answer is largely dependent on the individual. For some, taking on a role of compliance or helplessness offers a form of therapeutic escape; from the stresses of life, from responsiblity, or from guilt. For others, being under the power of a strong, controlling presence may evoke the feelings of safety and protection associated with childhood. They likewise may derive satisfaction from earning the approval of that figure (see: Servitude (BDSM)). A sadist, on the other hand, may enjoy the feeling of power and authority that comes from playing the dominant role, or receive pleasure vicariously through the suffering of the masochist. It is poorly understood, though, what ultimately connects these emotional experiences to sexual gratification, or how that connection initially forms. It is usually agreed on by psychologists that experiences during early sexual development can have a profound effect on the character of sexuality later in life. Sadomasochistic desires, however, seem to form at a variety of ages. Some individuals report having had them before puberty, while others do not discover them until well into adulthood. According to one study, the majority of male sadomasochists (53%) developed their interest before the age of 15, while the majority of females (78%) developed their interest afterwards (Breslow, Evans, and Langley 1985). Like sexual fetishes, sadomasochism can be learned through conditioning—in this context, the repeated association of sexual pleasure with an object or stimulus.

Sadism and masochism in real life

The term BDSM has been created to describe the quite common activities between consenting adults that contain sadistic and masochistic elements. Many behaviors such as erotic spanking, tickling and love-bites that many people think of only as "rough" sex also contain elements of sado-masochism. In certain extreme cases, sadism and masochism can include fantasies, sexual urges or behaviour that cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning, to the point that they can be considered part of a mental disorder. However, this is an uncommon case, and psychiatrists are now moving towards regarding sadism and masochism not as disorders in and of themselves, but only as disorders when associated with other problems such as a personality disorder.

Sadism as a motivation for crime

A small minority of disordered individuals commit crimes with a strong sadistic element. This is generally considered to be caused by personality disorders. Many serial killers' murders have strong sadistic elements. Recently, there have been theories that many of these personality disorders have been caused by brain damage.

Sadism and masochism in fiction

In general, the depiction of sadism and masochism in fiction tends to be portrayed from the viewpoint of masochistic fantasy. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel Venus in Furs is essentially one long masochistic fantasy, where the male principal character encourages his mistress to mistreat him. It inspired a song of the same name, and about the same subject matter, by the pioneering rock group The Velvet Underground, featuring the lyric "Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather." The 1962 science fiction novel A Clockwork Orange, along with its 1971 Stanley Kubrick film adaptation, follow the exploits of a vicious street gang led by a sadistic young nihilist with a taste for Beethoven and gang-rape. Both works present violent sadism as a force that grows beneath society, only to be eventually unleashed upon it. Story of O is another classic masochistic novel, written by a woman, Pauline Réage. In this novel, the female principal character is kept in a chateau and mistreated by a group of men. The novelist Anne Rice, best known for Interview with the Vampire, wrote the sadomasochistic trilogy

Antonin Artaud

An outline of Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty

Biographical Information

Selected works

External links

Quotes

1896

Events

January - April

May - August

September - December

Unknown dates

Births

Deaths

Marriages

March 4

Events

Births

Deaths

Holidays and observances

External links

Playwright

History

See also

External links

Actor

Etymology

History

Actresses in male roles

Techniques of acting

Acting awards

See also

Suggested reading

Theatre and its Double

Eastern

See also

Bali

Geography

History

Demographics

Religion

Language

Culture

See also

External links

References

Theatre of Cruelty

Cruelty

See also

External Source

Sadism

The biology of S&M

The psychology of S&M

Sadism and masochism in real life

Sadism as a motivation for crime

Sadism and masochism in fiction