This article aims to reflect on the “revolutionary” matrix of Artaudian
thought starting from the analysis conducted by Florinda Cambria in Antonin
Artaud: il corpo esploso (Jaca Book, Milano 2021). Such a revolutionary matrix
is embodied in the effective action underlying the Theater of Cruelty, through
which Artaud stands outside Western metaphysics. This can happen because at
the basis of effective action, that is of an action that creates meaning and world,
there are no longer those conceptual separations established by a certain metaphysics: in their place there is now a reciprocity between opposites, for example
between spirit and matter, but also between action and representation, which
can only reveal themselves by transiting one into the other. This is why Cambria
goes so far as to redefine Artaudian “metaphysics in action” as “metaphysics of
transit,” taking up the image of the “stake of impermanence” so dear to Artaud.