Revolutionary Messages

Published here in its entirety in English, Artaud's Revolutionary Messages collects Antonin Artaud's political, aesthetic and philosophical writings during his travels to Mexico in 1936. Written around the same time as his seminal work The Theatre and its Double, it captures a crucial point in Artaud's life shortly before he was admitted to a mental asylum in which he was to spend a significant part of his later life. Revolutionary Messages contains conferences that Artaud gave at the University of Mexico, articles from the daily Mexican newspaper El Nacional Revolucionario and a study of three seminal artists of the time influenced by or from Mexico: Franz Hals, Ortiz Monasterio and Maria Izquierdo. Not only will you gain crucial insight into Artaud's time in Mexico and his vision of a "total revolution," which he places in distinction to Marxist and Surrealist conceptions of revolution, but you will deepen your understanding of the philosophical roots of his theatrical project, which ultimately shaped modern theatre and dance. The publication includes an introduction by the translator, Joel White, and a preface by Professor of European Philosophy, Howard Caygill.

Antonin Artaud (1896 - 1948) was a French dramatist, poet, essayist, actor and theatre director, widely recognized as one of the major figures of twentieth-century theatre and the European avant-garde. Artaud's most significant contribution to drama theory is his "theater of cruelty" and, although it was not widely embraced in practice, the ideas have been, and continue to be, the subject of many essays on modern theater.

FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
Artaud's "Messages"
Translating Artaud's Revolutionary Messages
Artaud's "Révolution"
Realism or Surrealism
The Double and the Race-principle
The Void and Life-Death
Ni Droite, Ni Gauche?
I THREE LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MEXICO
Surrealism and Revolution
Man Against Fate
Theatre and the Gods
II MEXICO
Post-War Theatre in Paris
Open Letter to the Governors of the Mexican States
The Universal Bases of Culture
First Contact with the Mexican Revolution
Medea Without Fire
Young French Painting and Tradition
French Theatre in Search of a Myth
What I Came to Mexico to Do
The Eternal Culture of Mexico
The False Superiority of the Elite
Eternal Secrets of Culture
The Occult Forces of Mexico
The Social Anarchy of Art
I Came to Mexico to Flee European Civilization,
III FRANZ HALS. ORTIZ MONASTERIO. MARIA IZQUIERO
Franz Hals
A Technician of Stonework: Monasterio
The Painting of Maria Izquierdo
Maria Izquierdo
Two Notes
Mexico and the Primitive Spirit: Maria Izquierdo
IV HAVANA
The Eternal Betrayal of White People
Theatre in Mexico
La Corrida and Human Sacrifices
Red Paint
Indians and Metaphysics
V THREE TEXTS ON MEXICO
Awakening of the Thunderbird
Mexico and Civilisation
The Force of Mexico
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX