Antonin Artaud: The End of the Christian Era - Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

French Literature Reviews - 2026

Antonin Artaud: The End of the Christian Era
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics

Paule Thévenin
Antonin Artaud: The End of the Christian Era
Preface by Michel Surya

Publisher: Leo Scheer
Series: "Lignes Essais"
2006
ISBN: 2-7561-0060-9
296 pages
€19

Publisher's Overview:

If the history of surrealism cannot be fully identified with André Breton without distortion, who else can it be attributed to when accounts of the movement consistently omit him? However surprising the answer may be—even for surrealism itself—it is Antonin Artaud. From the union of these two men, another surrealism might have been born: a surrealism that would not have compromised on the radical excess at its origin. At the same time, this union was impossible, lasting only as long as a single issue of the journal La Révolution surréaliste—issue no. 3, "The End of the Christian Era," arguably the finest of all. Their differences were simply too profound, whether concerning the potential or impossible politicization of the movement, which is well known, or its two foundational doctrinal tenets: automatism and the dream. In this essential, previously unpublished book, Paule Thévenin examines these two points and the contrasting yet similar conceptions held by Breton and Artaud. They were arguing less over surrealism itself than over its fidelity to its founding rule, a debate Thévenin approaches with her characteristic scrupulousness and an authority that only she, as the editor of Artaud's Collected Works, could possess.

Contents:

  • Surrealist before Surrealism; Surrealist in Difference
  • Antonin Artaud's Role in Surrealism; The Manifestoes
  • The Mind/Matter Dualism
  • January 30–April 20, 1925: Antonin Artaud's Pivotal Role in Surrealism; The Impossibility of His Tenure
  • Heliogabalus, or the Crowned Anarchist / The Nerve Meter; Automatism
  • Automatic Writing; The Breaking Point
  • The Word, The Object
  • Automatic Product; Producing the Body
  • From the Relative Possibilities of Interpreting an Automatic Text to the Obligation to Remake a Sign if it Bears Traces of Automatism
  • The Obsession with the Dream; The Fragmented World of Dreams
  • The Infallibility of Thought; Evasion
  • On the Proper Use of Dreams
  • The Dream in Antonin Artaud's Writing

The historical relationship between Antonin Artaud and André Breton remains one of the defining tensions within early twentieth-century avant-garde movements. While surrealism is frequently defined through Breton's manifestoes and leadership, the movement's early trajectory involved intense theoretical struggles over doctrine, automatism, and the status of the dream. As key figures navigated the relationship between art, literature, and political engagement, debates over foundational rules exposed deep divergences among participants. Paule Thévenin examines these differing conceptions through the collaborative and contentious moments that marked Artaud's brief association with the group, focusing on editorial and theoretical disputes surrounding the journal La Révolution surréaliste, which addressed specific doctrinal points of contention between Artaud and Breton, including the interpretation of automatic writing, the role of the dream, and the philosophical implications of mind-matter dualism, drawing on her editorial expertise with Artaud's writings. Readers interested in the history of surrealism and twentieth-century French literary movements may find this work a relevant study of internal avant-garde dynamics.