Author Description

Begining with a refreshing look at the ideas of Antonin Artaud, this book provides a through analysis of how both Sarah Kane and Samuel Beckett are indebted to his legacy. In juxtaposing these playwrights, Laurens De vos thoroughly illustrates how both, in their own way, struggle with coming to terms with Artaud. Desire-a key concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis-lies at the root of his Theater of Cruelty; Kane and Beckett prove that desire and cruelty are inextricably linked to one another yet appear in radically different disguises. Relying on these playwrights, this book not only sheds light on the precise intentions behind Artaud's project, it also maps out the structural parallels and dichotomies between the Theater of Cruelty and the literary genre of tragedy.