The Puppet and its Master: Deconstruction as Ventriloquy
The Puppet and its Master: Deconstruction as Ventriloquy

Summary/Abstract: In this article, I start by focussing on Jacques Derrida’s last lecture on Antonin Artaud. I consider this lecture as a ventriloquy, that is to say a staged version of the entirety of Derrida’s experience as a reader of Artaud. This lecture reveals how Artaud represents both a conceptual character embodying écriture and a problematic precursor to Derrida’s writing style and thought. I will then connect this ventriloquy to the appearance of the figure of the puppet in both Artaud’s theory of theatre and Derrida’s last seminar The Beast and the Sovereign. In so doing, I will attempt to show how the puppet materializes Artaud’s redefinition of writing, and more generally the creative act, through a practice of performance that was so influential to Derrida’s study of the notions of the performative and creation.

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