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Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

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Year 2007 
Volume 6 
Issue 2

Artaud's Passion, Sacrament and Excrement: Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Catholicism and Organisational Performance

Heather Hopfl
University of Essex

2007 6 (2) Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the theatre of organisational life. It gives particular attention to the work of the playwright Antonin Artaud and his relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. In every aspect of his life, Artaud was a man of extremes. His attempts to theatricalize his personal tortures and to find expression for them are excessively brutal and intensely physical. His relationship with the Catholic Church is likewise passionate and one of extremes. From daily communicant to heretic and blasphemer, back to communicant, then to repudiator, is a pattern of oscillation which runs throughout his life. His theatrical works reflect this tension. In later life, he comes to believe that he himself was crucified as a punishment for his disordered life. At times in his life he seems to crave the community of the Church and other times to despise the moral order the Church imposes on him. This paper attempts to look at Artaud's desire to examine experience in its raw state. The paper concludes by considering the way in which this oscillation is apparent in ambivalent attitudes to the organising power of the corporation and in the quasi Catholicism of organizational rituals and performances.

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APA style

Hopfl, Heather (2007). Artaud's Passion, Sacrament and Excrement: Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Catholicism and Organisational Performance. (2007). Artaud's Passion, Sacrament and Excrement: Some Thoughts on the Relationship Between Catholicism and Organisational Performance. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, 6(2), 149-158. (Original work published 2007)

MLA style

Hopfl, Heather. “Artaud's Passion, Sacrament And Excrement: Some Thoughts On The Relationship Between Catholicism And Organisational Performance”. 2007. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, vol. 6, no. 2, 2007, pp. 149-158.

Chicago style

Hopfl, Heather. “Artaud's Passion, Sacrament And Excrement: Some Thoughts On The Relationship Between Catholicism And Organisational Performance”. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 6, no. 2 (2007): 149-158.