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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Artaud claim musical instruments will be treated in the Theater of Cruelty?
(a) As invisible.
(b) As objects and part of the set.
(c) As characters.
(d) As external objects.

2. According to Artaud, what the athlete depends upon in ______ is what the actor depends upon in shouting a passionate curse.
(a) Running.
(b) Catching.
(c) Throwing.
(d) Fighting.

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

4. Artaud claims that "everything that ____ is a cruelty."
(a) Exists.
(b) Murders.
(c) Acts.
(d) Dominates.

5. 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) Double.
(b) Mime.
(c) Shadow.
(d) Truth.

Short Answer Questions

1. In his Second Manifesto, Artaud describes the themes for the Theater of Cruelty as based on the ________ of ancient civilizations from all over the world.

2. In his second letter of "Letters on Language," Artaud states that he finds the duality between author and _____ in the context of theater totally absurd, since there should be no difference between them."

3. Artaud writes, "At the point of deterioration which our sensibility has reached, it is certain that we need above all a theater that _________."

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

5. To what does Artaud compare the ability of the theater's "magical means of art and speech to be exercised organically and altogether"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Artaud's subject of his second note in "Two Notes"?

2. Discuss the use of masks and accessories as described in the First Manifesto.

3. Discuss how Artaud's time and place impact his vision of the theater.

4. In Artaud's "Letters on Language," he insists that the task of "mise en scène" must not be subordinated to spoken or written words as if this task was simply an accessory to theater. What does this mean?

5. What movie does Artaud use in comparison to his main subject in the first note of "Two Notes"? What does he write of American filmmakers?

6. How does Artaud describe the correlation between actions and language in his "Letters on Language"?

7. What does Artaud write in his "Letters on Language" regarding the psychology of characters?

8. Describe the importance and role of the actor in Artaud's Theater of Cruelty, as he describes in the First Manifesto.

9. Describe the events of the last two acts of "The Conquest of Mexico."

10. How does Artaud describe what "cruelty" is not referring to in his letters?

(see the answer keys)

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