This course takes Antonin Artaud’s concept of the “theater of cruelty,” at its point of departure. Artaud called for a more rigorous theater that would require its viewers to experience it in their body, via the senses. In a way, one could say that he called for a theater that could disrupt daily routines and a de facto passivity in the face of various assaults on human dignity. This course explores 20th and 21st experimental poetry, theater and film which reflect Artaud’s ideas. We will begin with Artaud’s iconic theoretical text and his appearance in Dyer’s Joan of Arc. We will explore his ideas for re-examining the encounters between colonizers and colonized, civilian and police, the body and the mind, sound and images.