Dear all 

Please note we have had to alter the format our conference slightly - we are now hosting a 2 day conference based on 15 minute presentations rather than a day of presentations and a day of performances.

We are especially inviting female contributors as well as new researchers and early researchers in the field of Artaud studies.

Antonin Artaud: New Critical Reflections 

Dates: July 30th and 31st 2024, Kingston University, Town house Building (Penrhyn Rd Campus, 30th-31st July)

We are extremely pleased to present a call for papers for our forthcoming conference and performance event celebrating the life and work of the writer, poet, dissident surrealist and founder of the Theatre of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud. 

Since 2018 the publishers Infinity Land Press and Diaphanes have been publishing translations of Artaud’s final and previously unpublished works, and his letters from Ireland. These publications have been exposing Artaud to a new readership as well as extending and completing the most extraordinary and troubling corpus of work of the 20th century. 

This international conference aims to bring together scholars of Artaud’s work, of  experimental and transgressive theatre, film,  performance, music and literature, as well as  performers, artists, filmmakers and musicians in a major two day event. 

The event will encompass two days of conference presentations from across many  disciplines and consider and  consist of academic conference papers with new research about Artaud, his work and legacy. It will take place in Kingston University’s RIBA award winning Town House Building / Library (Penrhyn Rd Campus), in south-west London.

We invite you to submit either abstracts (one-page maximum, please). Papers  should last NO MORE than 20 mins max.  We especially invite female researchers, as well as new and early researchers, scholars and practitioners to submit proposals.

You are invited (but not limited) to submit abstracts on the follow topics

‘The Theatre and its Double’ – Artaud’s theatrical writings around the Theatre of Cruelty

Artaud and the Surrealist movement

Artaud’s travels to Mexico and Ireland

The Fragmented Body and the Fragmented text

Artaud, conspiracy and the Occult

Artaud’s Cultural legacy in film, sound and performance

Artaud and Addiction

Artaud, Collaboration and Friendship: Roger Blin, Paule Thevenin, Marthe Robert etc

Artaud’s final performance at the Vieux-Colombier Theatre, Paris

Final works for Radio

Lost and unpublished works

Contemporary and current translations of poetry and other writing

Artaud and Punk

Artaud and contemporary discussions around mental health and the body

Artaud and The Plague – Re-reading Artaud in the Covid era

Dissolving borders and boundaries.

Artaud’s film experiments and film theory.

Unmade film projects and scenarious

Artaud as an actor (Napoleon [Gance, 1927]; The Passion of Joan of Arc [Dreyer, 1928])

Work on The Seashell and the Clergyman (Dulac, 1928).

Asylum internment and final years

Drawings from Ivry-Sur-Seine and Rodez

Violence, Cruelty and Transgression in Artaud’s work (interest in works such as The Cenci and Heliogabalus)

Contemporary (re)appraisals and interpretations of Artaud and his work, and its worldwide inspiration in countries such as Japan, etc.

 There will be a nominal charge, £10,  for attendance at the entire conference.

 Please submit abstracts in the first instance to the conference conveners  Dr Matthew Melia (m.melia@kingston.ac.uk) or to Professor Stephen Barber (stephen.barber@kingston.ac.uk) by February 29th 2024.