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ed to its cosmic dynamism, to the detriment of rationality, psychology, and verisimilitude. In this sense he is a precursor of Artaud who states in the "Manifesto" of the Theatre of Cruelty, "The crimes of the psychological theatre inherited from Racine have gotten us unused to the immediate and violent action which the theatre must possess." 13 It should be a theatre which is not limited to taking us into the inner life of the characters, which does not treat us like voyeurs, does not flatter our reason, but which reintroduces "the lost notion of cosmic cruelty." 14 This cosmic cruelty must necessarily be related to the idea that the force, which Artaud calls "evil" and Sade calls "nature," holds us prisoner forever and determines as a result all activity on this earth. Life, in brief, must inevitably contain cruelty. For Sade, as for Artaud, art has as its aims the violent revelation of the ultimate reality of existence. This is probably the context in which Artaud saw Sade's work and the reason he included it in his proposal. The theatricality of Sade's work must be sought either in the lack of versimilitude and humanity in his characters, or in the inspired union of dynamism and plasticity revealed in his novels. La Philosophie dans le Boudoir will serve as an example. A series of lessons in license alternates with a series of erotic tableaux. Thanks to this juxtaposition, the work acquires a veritable theatrical dimension, first because the tableaux, in the context of the novel, serve as erotic counterparts to the theoretical lessons; second because, thanks to these tableaux, the theory comes marvelously to life, arises and acts, embodied by characters who each symbolize a particular aspect of man's metaphysical drama which they project into time and space. Their verisimilitude is sacrificed but only because of another reality: that of dreams. As |
