Aesthetic Intentions of the Ritual Scene in the Theatre of Cruelty program by Antonin Artaud during the 1930s

Abstract

The aim of the study isto mark the aesthetic intentions of the Ritual Scene in Antonin Artaud’s directing practice of the 1930s and the basic concepts of The Theatre of Cruelty program, outlined in his book The Theatre and its Double (1938). The methodologyof the study combines the elements of the historical-cultural, historical-reconstructive, and structural-analytics methods. Scientific novelty of the study isin proposing a new systematization of the creative activity of the French avant-garde artist; also proposed isthe view on the program of The Theatre of Cruelty, nontraditional for the contemporary Ukrainian art studies. Antonin Artaud’s individualityand his creative activity remain in the focus of attention of Ukrainian scholars since the 1990s and up to the present day. At the same time, English and French theatrical studies have a long ongoing tradition ofstudying Artaud’slegacy. Thus, it is time to give a new meaning to the artistic theory and practice of the 1930s, taking into account new opinions of researchers on this topic.