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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In his first letter from "Letters on Cruelty," Artaud claims that "it is understood that life is always" what?
(a) Bloodshed.
(b) Murder.
(c) Cruel.
(d) Someone's death.

2. Artaud claims that the public thinks first of all with its what?
(a) Intellect.
(b) Heart.
(c) Body.
(d) Senses.

3. In his last letter from "Letters on Language," Artaud says that in fact, the theater he is defining has to assume another _____ in order to function.
(a) Civilization.
(b) Meaning.
(c) Theme.
(d) Definition.

4. In his first letter of "Letters on Language," Artaud insists that the task of ______ must not be subordinated to spoken or written words as if this task was simply an accessory to theater."
(a) Playwright.
(b) Director.
(c) Actor.
(d) Mise en scene.

5. Every breath has how many kinds of time?
(a) Eight.
(b) Six.
(c) Four.
(d) Three.

6. In "An Affective Athleticism," Artaud writes, "To make use of his emotions as a wrestler makes use of his muscles, he has to see the human being as a ______."
(a) Mime.
(b) Truth.
(c) Shadow.
(d) Double.

7. "When the poetic spirit is exercised, it always leads toward a kind of boiling ______, an essential disintegration of the real by poetry."
(a) Anarchy.
(b) Freedom.
(c) Redemption.
(d) Dissimilation.

8. In his second note of "Two Notes," the author writes "When an atmosphere is so transformed that a hostile audience is suddenly and blindly immersed and invincibly disarmed, it must be hailed as _____."
(a) A transformation.
(b) A success.
(c) A truth.
(d) An event.

9. To whom does the author address the first letter in "Letters on Cruelty"?
(a) J. P.
(b) Mme. Richeliou.
(c) Jean Racine.
(d) Alexander Pierre.

10. Artaud claims in his Second Manifesto that the Theater of Cruelty will "stage events, not ____."
(a) Men.
(b) Wars.
(c) Life.
(d) Trivial matters.

11. What is the name of the final act of Artaud's proposed production?
(a) "Abdication."
(b) "Confession."
(c) "Extraction."
(d) "War."

12. Writing of language in his first manifesto, Artaud states, "It is not a question of suppressing the spoken language, but of giving words approximately the importance they have ______."
(a) In dreams.
(b) In tribal rites.
(c) In movies.
(d) In physicality.

13. Artaud claims that the psychological theater descended from whom?
(a) Shakespeare.
(b) Jarry.
(c) Zola.
(d) Racine.

14. In his second letter from "Letters on Language," Artaud states, "My plays have nothing to do with ______ improvisations."
(a) Nietzsche's.
(b) Copeau's.
(c) Racine's.
(d) Jarry's.

15. Who, in addition to Shakespeare and Aeschylus does Artaud refer to as a great classicist in his "Letters on Language"?
(a) Racine.
(b) Sophocles.
(c) Moliere.
(d) Euripides.

Short Answer Questions

1. To whom does the author address the second letter from "Letters on Cruelty"?

2. What does Artaud say has "maintained us for ten years in an ineffectual torpor"?

3. What does Artaud compare actors of the "current" theater to in "The Theater and Cruelty"?

4. Artaud writes of "a seventh state which is beyond breath and which, through the door of the highest ____, the state of Sattva, joins the manifest to the non-manifest."

5. In what year were the letters dated from "Letters on Cruelty"?

(see the answer keys)

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