Abstract
AimsThis work set out to explore the relationship between the Grand Guignol theatre (reminiscent of the British Punch and Judy) and alienism in the period from 1897 to 1962 in Paris. The scenes were based on an alternation between contrasting emotions, with the audience doubled up with laughter and then scared to death. MethodThe approach consists in an analysis of the Grand Guignol theatre, where madness appeared as the central theme. ResultsIn Grand Guignol the strategy was to relax the audience, only to increase the tension a moment later. These one-act vaudevilles and dramas followed one on the other. The evening culminated in the macabre and hopeless fright. In this theatre of blood and terror, the audience was frightened by the appearance of lunatics, in an attempt to understand what distinguishes the lunatic from the sane person: here, the poetics of blood contained a notion of separation, the familiar becoming monstrous. Grand Guignol set out to move the audience. The spectators were be given “pills” of terror and perversity, in other words, pills of madness. DiscussionWhere insane people abound, alienists and academics are needed. The Grand Guignol theatre called in great names who lent their scientific support and aroused curiosity: Georges Gilles de la Tourette, Gilbert Ballet, Alfred Binet, Joseph Babinski. ConclusionThese alienists turned the Grand Guignol theatre into a place for medical talks, discussions and conferences, and found a theme for prefaces and even for grand-guignolesque plays.
Published Version
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