Antonin Artaud, self-portrait

Foundations of Psychoanalysis

Coming from Matter: On Artaud’s Recreation of the World — Raffaella Colombo 

Saturday, February 1, 2025
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM (ET)

Ever since Deleuze and Guattari brought attention to it, Artaud’s concept of a “body without organs” (from his 1947 play To Have Done with the Judgment of God ) has been overused as a metaphor for individual and collective rebellion. Yet many other lessons remain in his “absolute materialism” and the painful, powerfully revolutionary conflict he waged with the pervasive presence of matter — from physical objects to the soul, thoughts, and even God.

Suggested readings: Artaud, Antonin: “Revolutionary Messages” in Journey to Mexico: Revolutionary Messages and the Tarahumara, Contra Mundum Press, 2024, pp. 110-228; “Letters from 1943-45 (Rodez)” and To Have Done with the Judgment of God in Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings, edited by Susan Sontag, University of California Press, 1976, pp. 423-463 and pp. 555-574.

Location: Online via Zoom.

Fee: $40; for students with ID: $15. Registration details to follow. 

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Raffaella Colombo was for over fifteen years a researcher at the State University of Milan and is now an independent scholar. Her work focuses on modern and contemporary moral and political philosophy, particularly on Spinoza and Leo Strauss. The author of numerous books and essays on philosophy and in the field of human-animal studies, she is co-director of the academic journal Balthazar. Per un’etica dell’inclusione.