For Alain Badiou, theatre—unlike cinema—is the place for the staging of a truly emancipatory collective subject. In this sense theatre is, of all the arts, the one strictly homologous to politics: both theatre and politics depend on a limited set of texts or statements, collectively enacted by a group of actors or militants, which put a limit on the excessive power of the state. This explains why the history of theatre has always been inseparable from a history of state repression and censorship.
This definitive collection includes not only Badiou’s pamphlet Rhapsody for the Theatre but also essays on Jean-Paul Sartre, on the political destiny of contemporary theatre, and on Badiou’s own work as a playwright, as author of the Ahmed Tetralogy.
"Badiou has been an intellectual hero of France’s anti-capitalist left since the Paris street protests of 1968."—BBC HARDtalk
"One of the most important philosophers writing today."—Joan Copjec
"A figure like Plato or Hegel walks here among us!"—Slavoj Žižek
"An heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser."—New Statesman
For Alain Badiou, theatre—unlike cinema—is the place for the staging of a truly emancipatory collective subject. In this sense theatre is, of all the arts, the one strictly homologous to politics: both theatre and politics depend on a limited set of texts or statements, collectively enacted by a group of actors or militants, which put a limit on the excessive power of the state. This explains why the history of theatre has always been inseparable from a history of state repression and censorship.
This definitive collection includes not only Badiou’s pamphlet Rhapsody for the Theatre but also essays on Jean-Paul Sartre, on the political destiny of contemporary theatre, and on Badiou’s own work as a playwright, as author of the Ahmed Tetralogy.
Praise
"Badiou has been an intellectual hero of France’s anti-capitalist left since the Paris street protests of 1968."—BBC HARDtalk
"One of the most important philosophers writing today."—Joan Copjec
"A figure like Plato or Hegel walks here among us!"—Slavoj Žižek
"An heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser."—New Statesman
