Antonin Artaud was one of the most brilliant and baffling voices of the twentieth century. Working across a multitude of disciplines, his genre-defying creative output was immense. Best known for his concept of a 'theatre of cruelty', his legacy has been to re-define the possibilities of live performance. This resource collects, for the first time, some of the best critical writing on his life and work. Featuring contributions from critics such as Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Maurice Blanchot, Herbert Blau, Leo Bersani and Susan Sontag, Antonin Artaud: A Critical Reader: *challenges traditional perceptions of Artaud *explores the circumstances of his life and work, including the relationship between his mental illness, drug addiction and creativity *reflects the multi-disciplinary nature of Artaud's work by including material drawn from a wide range of sources on a number of subjects *divides the material into five useful sections - biography, theatre, writing, film and radio and fine arts. This indispensable collection is essential reading for scholars and students working across a variety of arts disciplines, including theatre, film, philosophy, literature and fine art. Its multi-disciplinary nature and the length of the extracts make it suitable for academics and post-graduates as well as upper-level undergraduates. Introduction. On Antonin Artaud: A Beginner's Guide to Cruelty BPart 1. On Biography: Madness and Language Andre Breton, Andre Parinaud, Georges Bataille, Sylvere Lotringer from an interview with Ja