ANTONIN ARTAVD HIS LIFE, MEXICO AND BALı EXPERIENCE S

Antoine-Marie-joseph Artaud was born on September 4, 1896, at 8 i.m. in Marseilles. He was the first of numerous children, most of whom died in infaney. His mother, Euphrasie Nalpas, had eome from Smyrna and was of Greek oıigin. His father, of Freneh Provençal stoek, was well-ta-do, whose family had been in the ship-fitting business for over 150 years. As a ehild, Artaud eould speak Greek and ıtalian. He had a veıy speeial attaehment for his Greek grandmother'; with her he experieneed a closeness, ealmness, and an inner joy perhaps he never enjoyed again. His relationship with 1:ıismother was emotional and stormy. At the age of five he suffered £:\in attaek on meningitis; his mother who had just lost a three-day-old baby, turned all her attention to' Artaud. She gaye him no freedam to develop and ereated in him a sens~of dependeney and guilt at having eaused her so mueh suffering. Though he felt extreme tenderness for her, as he grew older he began to rebel at t1:ıissituation.and would hurt his mother deeply with his angry outbursts whieh ended with Artaud knoeking frantieally on his mother's door, begging for forgiyeness.