Fous d'Artaud

by Sylvère Lotringer

Those who are mad like Antonin Artaud, are they just as mad as he was? Madness, like the plague, is contagious, and everyone, from his psychiatrists to his disciples, family, and critics, everyone who gets close to Artaud, seems to participate in his delirium. Sylvère Lotringer explores various embodiments of this shared delirium through what Artaud called “mental dramas”—a series of confrontations with his witnesses or “persecutors” where we uncover the raw delirium at work, even in Lotringer himself. Mad Like Artaud does not intend to add one more layer of commentary to the bitter controversies that have been surrounding the cursed poet’s work since his death in 1948, nor does it take sides among the different camps who are still haggling over his corpse. This book speaks of the site where “madness” itself is simmering.

Genres: Psychology, Biography Memoir, Philosophy

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Sylvère Lotringer (born in 1938 in Paris, France) is a literary critic and cultural theorist. A younger contemporary of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Jean Baudrillard, Paul Virilio and Michel Foucault, he is best known for synthesizing French theory with American literary, cultural and architectural avant-garde movements through his work with Semiotext(e); and for his interpretations of French theory in a 21st-century context. An influential interpreter of Jean Baudrillard's theories, Lotringer invented the concept "extrapolationist" as a means of describing the hyperbolic world-views espoused by Baudrillard and Paul Virilio. Lotringer is a Professor of Foreign Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mad Like Artaud” by Sylvére Lotringer / Translated by Joanna Spinks (univocal)


I read books on Antonin Artaud like a Dodger or Yankees fan eating peanuts in a game. I can’t get enough of Artaud, and almost every book on him, at the very least, is super interesting. “Mad Like Artaud” by Sylvére Lotringer, is the best. So good in fact, that at times have a hard time believing that Lotringer actually interviewed these key people who were Artaud’s doctors as well as the woman who ran his literary estate. By hook or crook.

In French literary circles the issue of Artaud and his madness and therefore his stay in a mental hospital during the occupation is quite controversial. The Letterists had a campaign to annoy the doctor who helped (or destroy) Artaud in the mental hospital - and here we get fascinating long interviews with two of Artaud’s doctors: Jacques Latrémolière and Gaston Ferdière. Lotringer is very aggressive in his questioning for both doctors, but more so for Latrémolière, who clearly didn’t care for Artaud’s work. In fact, he finds it hard to believe that he has any importance whatsoever. On the other hand, Ferdière has a great appreciation for Artaud and his work - and, weirdly enough, has the hatred from the Letterist. What is interesting, as we get an inside view of Artaud’s craziness as well as his life in the hospital. At the start, he almost starved to death, but due to his friend, the poet Robert Desnos, he was spared the misery. So now we have the push and pull of people around Artaud, and in a way it is sort of madness in itself. The most saddest to me is Paule Thèvenin, who is a controversial figure in the Artaud world. She was the head of his literary estate, with some unhappiness on the part of his family. Still, the bitterness comes through after many years.

There is some fiction in the book, where Lotringer meets Artaud as an dying old man - which makes the whole book kind of hmmm. Nevertheless, a fascinating book, and truly a superbly written one as well. For sure a classic Artaud study, but also a fascinating look into the world of a French mental hospital in the post-war years as well as during the occupation. A must for the Artaud lunatic, but also anyone who is interested in 20th century French literature.

[Durakov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit thin on substance in some points, but fascinating background to Artaud's work and enjoyable confrontational interviews between Lotringer and the doctors in Artaud's life.

[Zack2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An even-handed and many-faced look into Artaud's treatment by psychiatry. The interviews are fascinating and all contradict one another as one would expect. A great quick read for fans of Artaud.

[sevdah]

What would have been, had Artaud been spared starvation in a mental institution, electroshock therapy, the label of madness. How much we've lost, and what exactly madness is. Yes this most important writer spat and burbed and sometimes ate without a fork or spoon - but why and by whom was he pronounced dangerous, and what was this society that needed to be protected from him.
A compelling, or even a touching book.