View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through IX. Letters on Cruelty.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Describing the Balinese theater, Artaud writes, "And there is in the truly terrifying look of their devil (probably Tibetan) a striking similarity to the look of a certain ______ in our own remembrance."
(a) Monster.
(b) Parent.
(c) Puppet.
(d) Beast.

2. Artaud believes that in its current, Occidental interpretation, theater is limited to mimicking what through scripted dialogues?
(a) The magical.
(b) The transcendent.
(c) Daily life.
(d) The supernatural.

3. Which filmmakers/performers does Artaud make reference to in "Metaphysics and Mise en Scene"?
(a) Lucy and Desi.
(b) Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.
(c) Abbott and Costello.
(d) The Marx Brothers.

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

5. Who had a prophetic dream about a plague destroying his city?
(a) Saint-Remys.
(b) Lord Bastillion.
(c) Artaud.
(d) DuPlace.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is proposed by the author as meant to shake up the foundations of civilization and culture as a whole?

2. In the Preface, Artaud contends we must "break through ________ in order to touch life to create or recreate the theater."

3. Artaud suggests that in order to take language to a metaphysical level, it must be reduced to what?

4. The "gold" of the theater evokes in the spirit what, according to Artaud?

5. In his last letter from "Letters on Cruelty," Artaud writes "the desire characteristic of _____ is cruelty since it feeds upon contingencies."

(see the answer key)

This section contains 257 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample