Artaud and Genet's the maids

Gary Day

pp. 146-161

in: Brian Docherty (ed), Twentieth-century European drama, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1994

Abstract

At least two commentators have claimed that Antonin Artaud was an important influence on Jean Genet. Ronald Harwood says this influence was "enormous"¹ while John Russell Taylor classifies Genet as a "follower"² of Artaud. Such views represent the received wisdom and, like all received wisdom, it needs to be questioned. The purpose of this essay is to examine the influence of Artaud on Genet with reference to The Maids,³ and then to consider examples of other approaches to the play before finally problematising the whole question of "influence" as a way of making sense of a text, especially when that text is a play.

Cited authors

Russell Bertrand

Artaud Antonin

Genet Jean