French Literature Reviews - 2026

Ancient Greece in the Work of Antonin Artaud
Theatre and Performance

Ancient Greece in the Work of Antonin Artaud
Juan Carlos Sanchez Leon

Presses de L'université de Franche Comté

ISBN : 978-2-84867-167-3
116 pages, 16 x 22 cm
Price: 20.00 €
Abstract

Antonin Artaud's thought represents a fundamental turning point in the break with Western "rationalism" and the attempt at a "metaphysical" renewal of the West. During the 1920s and 1930s, Artaud succeeded in raising major questions concerning the crisis of Western culture, the appeal to the spiritual East, cultural primitivism, and historical regression (Ancient Greece). This book demonstrates Artaud's turn to Greek culture—drawing inspiration from pre-Socratic philosophers, mystery cults, and tragedy—as the true origin of Western civilization. Despite his ahistorical conception of time (perhaps the very reason why professional historians have hitherto avoided his work), humanity's return to this mythical past is anchored, for him, in early Minoan-Mycenaean Greece. Much like Hölderlin, Nietzsche, Heidegger (and soon Foucault) before him, Artaud irreversibly transformed how Western man perceives his Greek origins.

(information provided by the publisher)

Antonin Artaud occupied a distinct position within twentieth-century intellectual culture, engaging deeply with the spiritual East, cultural primitivism, and the perceived crisis of Western rationalism. His critique of modern civilization involved looking backward to foundational epochs, notably through an unconventional engagement with classical antiquity. The broader intellectual tradition of the period frequently turned to antiquity to diagnose contemporary cultural anxieties, aligning Artaud with other thinkers who interrogated the trajectory of Western thought and its origins.

Juan Carlos Sanchez Leon examines Artaud's fascination with pre-Socratic philosophers, mystery cults, and classical tragedy as alternative sources of spiritual and cultural renewal. The volume highlights how Artaud situated early Minoan-Mycenaean Greece at the heart of a mythical past, connecting his perspective to the broader philosophical lineages explored by writers such as Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Martin Heidegger. Readers interested in the reception of classical antiquity and the history of twentieth-century French thought may find this study relevant.