Cruelty and Desire in the Modern Theater

Departing from a refreshing look at the ideas of Antonin Artaud, this book provides a thorough analysis of how both Sarah Kane and Samuel Beckett are indebted to his legacy. In juxtaposing these playwrights, De Vos minutely points out how both in their own way struggle with coming to terms with Artaud. A key concept in Lacanian psychoanalytic theories, desire lies at the root of the Theatre of Cruelty; Kane and Beckett prove that desire and cruelty are inextricably linked to one another, but that they appear in radically different disguises. Relying on Kane and Beckett, this book not only sheds a light on the precise intentions behind Artaud's project, it also maps out the structural parallels and dichotomies between the Theatre of Cruelty and the literary genre of tragedy.

Laurens De Vos studied English and German literature at the universities of Ghent (Belgium) and Vienna (Austria). He also holds an MA literary theory from the University of Leuven and obtained his PhD in literary studies from the University of Ghent. De vos has published articles on modern playwrights and theater perfomances in Flemish and international theater magazines. He is co-editor of Sarah Kane in Context, a collection of essays published with Manchester University Press(2019).