Anarchy and Androgyny in Heliogabalo

7/27/2019 Anarchy and Androgyny in Heliogabalo

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ANARCHY AND ANDROGYNY IN ARTAUD'SHELIOGABALE OU L'ANARCHISTE COURONNE

In his many texts and letters,Antonin Artaud never ceased to expresshis fascinationfor the double. Letheatretsondouble, is best-knownwork,expressesthe unorthodoxview, for example, that it is life that doubles true theatre. His fascinationwith thedouble is also manifest in his VoyageuPaysdesTarahumaras,here the separatenessof male and female principles is put in question. In passages of the text in which thetwo principles are doubled by male and female dancers, the double is sacrificed tothe One: the two principles wage war until their mutual infiltration leaves themvirtually indistinguishablefrom one another.Heliogabaleu 'anarchisteouronne,nother text demonstratingArtaud'spreoccupa-tion with doubling, was published in I934, and is considered to be both a poeticwork and a work of erudition.' It depicts the life of Elagabalus, Roman emperorAD 219-22, who was born in Emesa in Syria in AD 204 and became emperor whenhis family managed to pass him off as the illegitimateson of the rightfulheir to thethrone, Caracalla,who had been murdered. He imposed the worshipof Baal uponthe Roman world, 'executed a number of resentfulgenerals, and pushed into highplaces a number of favourites distinguished by their personal beauty and theirhumble and alien origin'.2 Elagabalus,whose openly effeminate behaviour scandal-ized public opinion, was finallyexecuted by mutinous imperial guards.Artaud's numerous notes and outlines for this text indicate that he wanted tohighlight his character'sorigins, family, lineage, and youth; the 'dimensions' of hisneck and the 'volume' of his organs and members; his 'crises erotiques, cris,tintamarre et fureur' (OC, vII, 383). But what is perhaps most striking is thatArtaud'spreoccupationwith doubling followsa patternin this text that is similar toits counterpartin VoyageuPaysdesTarahumaras.nce again, the male and femaleprinciples are present. Once again they are shown to be at war and to succumb to amutual invasion that results,at times, in an indiscriminateintermingling.In addition, both Hiliogabale nd the Tarahumaran texts can be said to expressafundamental ambiguity. The doubling made possible by the separate male andfemale principles works, at times, to sustain the distinctnessof these two elements.At other times, however, the distinctness of the two elements is sacrificedin orderthat a unity or a 'One' either transcend the separate elements or arise from theirmingling.3It is the ambiguity characterizingArtaud's depiction of the relationship of the'One' to the 'double' that has sparked my investigationof his treatment of the dualthemes of anarchy and androgyny in Heliogabale. narchy is seen to be the disorder

1 References are to Antonin Artaud,(Euvresompletes,6 vols (Paris:Gallimard,I956-94). Le Theatret sondoubleanbe found nVol. iv, LesTarahumarasnVol.ix, Hiliogabalen 'anarchisteouronnen Vol.vII.Referencesin thetextareto thisedition. I2Encyclopaediaritannica. he writers of this entry note that the name Elagabaluswas corrupted toHeliogabalus bytheetymological anciesof some Greekwriter'.3John Stout providesa similarview of the ambiguity surrounding he treatment of male and femaleprinciplesn Hiliogabalehenhewrites: Artaud's arrative ... ] consistently eflectsa fascinationwithdualityand (sexual)differencecoupledwith an intense fear of dualityand difference' 'ModernistFamilyRomance:Artaud's Heliogabaleand Paternity', FrenchReview,64 ( 99 ), 261).

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LESLIE ANNE BOLDT-IRONS

that arises when separate principles are at war with one another. This war ofanarchy is often waged in order to bring warring principles to a state of unity,whereby the double is sacrificed to the One. It is also, however, valued on its ownterms, as a means by which warring principles are kept separate and saved fromextinction. Androgyny, on the other hand, is depicted as the state in which theblended male and female principles coexist in one being. An androgynous beingdoes not excise the male or female in order to let one or the other principledominate. The androgynous being is of interest to Artaud because the double andthe One coexist within its limits, the androgynous being enjoying the double statusof both double and One.Artaud's fascinationwith the double is played out in Heliogabalen an oscillationbetween his depiction of androgyny (the double united in unity) and of anarchy (inwhich chaos or the war of principles denies, if temporarily,the possibility of unity).In a furthercomplication of this oscillation between androgyny and anarchy, thereis a doubling or an oscillation of attitudes regardingthe double and the One. Thedouble is both desired and disdained through its separation of distinct forces, aseparationwhich Artaud wishes at times to maintain, at others to overcome. In asimilar fashion, the One is both desirable and unacceptable: desirable because itovercomes the separatenessof forces, but unacceptable because it extinguishes thedouble.To begin to understand how the themes of anarchy and androgyny relate to thequestion of the double and the One, one must turn to the first appendix, for it isthere that Artaud formulatesa seriesof crucialpostulatesthat underscore the text'sambiguity regarding the relationship of these two figures to one another. Thepostulates introduce at least two important questions: does a transcendentalOne,an indeterminateAbsolute, exist as a unified or an indivisible force from which allthings emanate? Or is this force at the origin alreadydouble and split at its source?The argumentspresented in the firstappendix typify the ambiguity characterizingthe entire text of Heliogabale,or they offer no clear solution to the questionsformulated there.On the one hand, Artaud seems to suggest that the belief in a transcendental andindeterminateUnity or One at the source of all things is erroneous,that everythingthat exists is alreadydouble at its source:Leshommesontcrupendant ongtemps l'existence 'unseulprincipe, e nature pirituelle,donttoutdepend.Maisunjourcesmemeshommes ontunedecouverte tterrante.lstrouvent ue l'originedeschosesestdouble,alorsqu'ils acroyaient imple; tque emonde oin dedescendre 'unseulprincipe stleproduitd'uneduite ombinee. OC, ii, 140)

This discovery of the double existing at the source of all things is deemedirrefutable;the proof of this lies ostensibly in the realm of music, and the dualpropertiesthat all sound comprises:'Aussi oin que l'on remonte dans la generationdes sons on trouve deux principes qui jouent parallelement et se composent pourfaire naitre la vibration' (OC, vii, I40). With respect to Artaud's description ofsounds (and, in particular,the production of musical notes or tones), it is true thatthey comprises the two properties of amplitude (loudness) and frequency (pitch),which together are extended in duration. Each note has its own peculiar degree ofloudness and pitch, the two propertiesbeing indissociably linked in a combinationwithout which it cannot be produced. In addition, each single musical note or tone

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AnarchyndAndrogynyn Artaud'sHeliogabale'is sounded as an amalgam of vibrations. The fundamental tone is accompanied inits vibration by attendant overtones and undertones (or upper and underlyingpartial tones) and in the production of a note 'several modes of vibrations aretriggeredsimultaneously'.In fact, the 'differentqualitiesof soundsdepend altogetheron the number and intensityof the overtones which accompany the primarytonesof these sounds'.4While such an analysis would seem to corroborate (while somewhat loosely)Artaud's choice of a musical model for his claim that all things have at their sourcean origin that is at least double, the next few lines of the appendix indicate his wishto put this claim in doubt. The ambiguity of this passage arisesfrom his suggestionthat there is also an essence which escapes from and transcends the dualitywhichhe had earlier imputed to the heart of all things: 'Et en dehors de cela [la duitecombinee] il n'y a que l'essence pure, l'abstraitinanalysable, l'absolu indetermine,"l'Inintelligible"enfin' (OC,vii, 140).By postulating the existence of a pure, abstract, absolute and indeterminateessence5(which, to returnto the analogy of the musical note, can in fact be locatedin the production of certain notes by the flute and in the pitch of a tuning fork,theonly notes to be produced without overtones or undertones), Artaud is able tocircumvent the troubling consequences of his earlier claim that the source of allthings is inherentlyand alwaysalreadydouble.The entire text of Heliogabale ontains figures and images that reflect andcorroborate the ambiguity expressed in the first appendix. Once again, thepostulates raised in the appendix lead to important questions. Artaud suggests,initially, that the essentialprinciples,marked as they are by duality, are opposed toone another, but coexist in a vibration constitutive of the harmony inherent increation (theprinciples have waged war 'pour stabiliser a creation' (OC,vII, I42) ),much as overtones and undertones inhere in the vibrationsproducing musical notes.The question, then, becomes: is this war, this vibration, already at work at thesource (is the war of doubles already present in the One) or does the oppositionbetween principles arise once they have emanated and grown distinct from anunintelligible, indeterminate (and thus decidedly not double) Absolute or One attheir source? The two positions are at work in Artaud'streatment of the doubles inhis text, for once again he does not settle the question definitively, preferringtomaintain the ambiguity in an oscillation between the two positions. It is preciselybecause the text does not resolve this ambiguity (given that Artaud's own positionon these two possibilitiesis never unequivocably stated) that my attempt to makesense of his contradictorystatements must to a certainextent be based on intelligentspeculation. Armed with the results of this speculation, I draw my own conclusionsabout the doubling of anarchy and androgyny, of double and One in this text, andwhat I believe to be the relativeweight accorded to each.

4 These two quotationsand other informationabout the compositionof musical notes are takenfrom TheNewOxford ompanionoMusic, vols,ed. by Denis Arnold(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress, 1983),I, Io0-I ,and theOxfordEnglishDictionary,respectively.5 It would be impossible,within the scope of this essay, to link Artaud'spostulateof an indeterminateAbsolute to his views on neo-Platonist,Taoist,or Kabbalistic enets thatpostulatethe existence of a similarentity.I haveleftthisexplorationor anotheressay n progress.

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At the source of Artaud's ambiguous position there lies a dilemma. If, as hewrites, one must bring warringprinciples back to their initialharmony in unity ('[ilfaut] reduire la multiplicite humaine et la ramenerpar le sang, la cruaute,la guerre[a] l'unite';'l'unite, qui est a la base de tous les mytheset tous les noms' (OC,vII, 51,50) ), then he argueselsewhere,aswell, thatone must also, to avoid the inarticulationof these principles in an indeterminate One, posit their coexistence and their war-like vibration at the heart of this very Absolute ('c'est susciter une anarchie sansnom,'anarchie des choses et des aspectsqui se r6veillent'(OC,vII, Io6)). In otherwords, the unity of the One must transcend the separatenessof the double, but notat the expense of the distinctness of elements constitutive of the double which lieswithin it.On the other hand, by arguingfor the coexistence of principles in an irreducibleduality within the One, Artaud is, in a sense, diminishing the One, for if it mustharbour within its limits the double, it can no longer escape division and exert, fromwithout, an unassailable transcendence. As long as the One holds within it analready existing duality, it theoreticallyrisksdisunity, if one or the other principleestablishesits supremacyand an unassailable transcendence in its turn. Given thathe tries at times to maintain the unassailable transcendence, from without, of theOne over the double, while at others to allow for the operation of an irreducibleduality within this One, the narrative of Heliogabales inevitably marked by theconflict of these two positions. It is fissuredby Artaud'sattempt at the impossibletask of preserving within the One the warring male and female principles fromextinction, while safeguardingthe notion of an indissoluble and separateOne thattranscends,fromwithout, the double represented by those very warringprinciples.That Heliogabalehould be markedby the conflict of these two positions is in factnot surprising,given that such a fissuringof text and such a doubling of positions isalreadypresent in Artaud'searly texts and correspondence.In these earlywritings,for example, he expresses the belief that his thought lies outside the consciousnessthat fixes (but eventually also arrests)thought. In Le Theatretsondouble, e wantedto do away with rehearsal and performance as the 'doubling' of and within thetheatre, and simultaneously to multiply or exaggerate the presence of masks andgestural hieroglyphs, which would double thought without resorting to words,examples of the textual doubling that Artaud wished to overcome. Finally, asmentioned earlier, the Tarahumaran texts evidence a fissuringthat in many waysmost closelyresembles that encountered in Heliogabale.n these texts, it is a questionof the conflictbetween dissolution and reunification,both of which Artaud claimedto have experienced throughPeyote rituals. The oscillationbetween dissolutionandreconstitution in the Tarahumaran texts becomes a different oscillation in Helio-gabale: hat between the maintenance of the double within the One, versus thetranscendenceof a One over a double (seen as having emanated from the One). Itis this oscillation which I now examine with respect to the narrative of Heliogabale,for it coloursArtaud'sdepiction of the doubles figuringprominentlyand repeatedlyin his text.The relationship between the One and the double is first introduced in Artaud'sdescription of the indiscriminate worship in Syria (c. AD 179) of the sun and themoon (themale and female principles,respectively). Many of the temples in Emesahouse statueshonouring both gods: 'I y a [... .] le temple du soleil-lune a Apameetout pave de pierres de lune et celui de la lune a Hieropolis pres d'Emese qui,

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870 AnarchyndAndrogynynArtaud'sHeliogabale'exterieurement consacre a la femme, comporte un tr6ne rabougri et diminue pourle male' (OC, VII, 30). Artaud reacts to this confusion of the masculine and thefeminine within the religiouspracticesof Emesa with a characteristicambiguityanddualityof position. On the one hand, he arguesfor the rigorous separationof maleand female principles, claiming that 'le stupefiantcolloque magique qui oppose leciel a la terre et la lune au ciel [... ] s'il ne s'exerce plus dans l'humeur rituelle desfetes, est a l'origine de notre actuelle inertie' (OC,vII, 56). This quotation suggeststhat the two principles, while opposed to one another, speak together, as if in acolloquium. This speaking together leads to inertia, rather than to a productive ifdiscordant vibration. When the properties associated with the male principle areconfused, as in the religious worship at Emesa, with forces arisingfrom the femaleprinciple, the possibility for a healthy and productive vibration arising from anantagonism of the principles is lost, replaced by inertia: 'La Syrie qui brouille lestemples [ . .] a oublie la guerreque la femelle et le male se sont faits autrefois dansle chaos' (OC,vII, 38). However when the principles representedby the sun and themoon, or the masculine and the feminine, are indeed opposed in antagonism, anessential energy and vibration arise in a war whose permanence stimulates andstabilizeswithout, however, arrestingcreation: 'Ramener la poesie et l'ordre dansun monde dont l'existence meme est un defi a l'ordre, c'est ramener la guerreet lapermanence de la guerre'(OC,vII, Io6).It is here that the ambiguity of Artaud's position can be identified. The forcesmust be kept rigorously separate, he argues, so that they do not lose their power ininertia.At the same time, he seems to be urging a return to a Unity and a harmonythat would stabilize the warring antagonism of these forces. The ambiguity arisesprecisely from the advocacy of a war of the principles, maintained in view of aneventual stabilizationof theirenergy in order.That Artaud should argue for an antagonistic separation of the two principlescorrespondsto his claim that the origin of all things is double, and that there existsin the One a separationof forces that are always alreadydivided. Yet his descriptionof the birthof the gods suggeststhat they arosefrom an original unityofforces: 'Lesdieux sont nes de la separationdes forces et ils mourront de leur reunion' (OC,vII,64). That they might arise from this unity or return to it in death conforms to hispositing of a pure unintelligible essence, an 'indeterminate One' that escapes theduality of principles. That he should refer to a 'separation'of forces suggests, initself, the possibility of a unity that might either arise from their mingling ortranscend them, already and initially, from without. That the principles mightcommingle in a potential 're-union' ('ils mourront de leur reunion') also suggeststhat their separation may have arisen from a Unity, a Oneness to which they shallreturn. The undecidability of the text revolves around the impossible coexistence ofa Unity to which the multiplicityof things must be returned, once they have beenreducedthroughthe war of principles,and the permanence of this war which, itself,should be maintained and not reduced to Unity. Artaud does not specifyunequivocally the nature of this One or this Unity, and whether or not it is alwaysalreadydouble at its source.It is perhaps possible to link his preoccupation with a return to Unity (and hisrefusal to specify the nature of this Unity) to a search for lost origins surroundingHeliogabale's birth. This is the view of Carol Jacobs, who refers to the river ofsperm surrounding his birth and to a river (and birth) whose source cannot be



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identified.She mentions 'theplay of the current of the text itself that is constantlyinmotion and unable to fix upon any of its signs as giving access to an origin'.6The inability to locate or specify either the origin of Heliogabale's birth or thenature of the Unity to which dual male and female forces are to return,in additionto the ambiguous attitude towards the commingling or separationof the male andfemale principles, can be seen to colour the treatment of charactersin Heliogabale.That Artaudhas doubled many of these characters becomes clear in his descriptionof Heliogabale's family:Julia Domna, 'un sexe qui aurait eu de la tete', resembles'une pierre de lune'; she is doubled by her sisterJulia Moesa, 'une tete a qui le sexene manqua pas', and who resembles 'le soufre ecrase au soleil' (OC,VII, 17, 18).Thesisters each embody a separate principle (Domna the moon, Moesa the sun) and arelikened to either a 'sexe' (Domna) or a 'tete' (Moesa),each element completed by itsopposite.7 Interestingly,Artaud has chosen female family members to embody thecharacteristics of male and female principles. According to Stout, 'Artaud'sjuxtapositionof virile mothers and absent or effeminatefathers,in conjunctionwithemperor Heliogabale's vigorous promotion of androgyny and ritual castration,suggests a wish to subvert sexual difference and the social structures which itsupports' (p. 4I9). In evidence of such a double subversion (social and sexual),Heliogabale, 'le roi qui se veut femme [et qui] est un pretre du Masculin' (OC,vii,74) is doubled not only by the male and female principles from within, but is alsoprey to the divisionseparatingman and god:Toute sa vie, Heliogabaleest en proie a cette aimantationdes contraires,a ce double6cartelement.D'unc6te, LE DIEU,de l'autre ote,

L'HOMME.Et dans 'homme,e roihumain tle roi solaire.Et dans e roihumain, 'homme ouronnietd6couronne.OC, Ii, 102-03)Heliogabale, who contains within him the doubles of masculine and feminine, ofman and god, alternatelyidentifieswith his god and distinguisheshimself from thelatter: 'Tant6t [ . .] Heliogabale se prend pour son dieu, tant6t [. . .] il se cachederriereson dieu et s'en distingue' (OC,vII, I02). When this identification does takeplace, the man Heliogabale is emptied, a mere double or Doppelgdngerf himself:'Pourquoi empecherait-on l'empereur Heliogabale de mettre le dieu en avant de

6 'This operation may be attributed to the "intelligence" of the river of sperm, which, as we have seen is ariver of signs - those names sown throughout the text as the possible if improbable fathers of Heliogabale.The "intelligence" (from inter= "between", and legere, egein= "to read", "to say") of the flow of signs is thedisplacement from one to another, a saying or reading between the names, the play of the current of the textitself that is constantly in motion and unable to fix upon any of its signs as giving access to an origin. Thecirculation of sperm, then, that surrounds Heliogabale's cradle is no orderly circular movement periodicallyreturning back to its origin, but rather a perpetual spending' (CarolJacobs, TheAssimilatingHarmony:TheImageof Interpretationn Nietzsche, Rilke,ArtaudandBenjamin Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978),p. 6I).7Jacobs mentions the confusion of principles mingled within the name of Julia Soaemias, which signifiesboth womb and semen (p. 59). That Heliogabale should have arisen from and have been surrounded by theconfusion of incestuous relationships also heightens the ambiguity surrounding his character. In an analogousdiscussion of the themes of incest and androgyny in the poetry of Georg Trakl, Richard Detsch refers to thepurpose of this incest: 'The production of a unisexual being who is both the offspring of the incestuous pair andthe result of their own fusion into one person, their own achievement of wholeness' (GeorgTrakl'sPoet?y:Towarda Unionof Opposites University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983), p. 50).

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872 AnarchyandAndrogynyn Artaud's'Hdliogabale'l'homme et d'ecraser l'homme sous le dieu?' While he is at times manipulated'comme [...] un fantoche, [...] un fantoche vide de roi' (OC, vII, I02, 94),Heliogabale at other times makes use of his title (thusrecognizing once again theinternal division distinguishingman from king):8 Mais [ .. ] profiter[de son titre]comme un roi. Avecgrandeuret magnificence,avec une conscience vraimentroyaledes pouvoirs qui reviennentau roi et qu'il puise derriereles rites'(OC,VII, 95).It is significantthat while he exploits the doubling of male and female, of manand king, there is one doubling that Heliogabale will not tolerate, for it is a concretedoubling that, originating entirely from without, is not of his making, but rather aforgeryof sorts: 'une mauvaise effigiede lui-meme, une sorte de second empereur,le petit Alexandre Severe': 'Mais si Elagabalus est homme et femme, il n'est pasdeux hommes a la fois. I1y a la une dualite materiellequi est pour Heliogabale uneinsulte au principe, et qu'Heliogabale ne peut accepter' (OC,vII, 134, 314).

While these examples of doubling (of male and female, of man and king, or god)occurwithin thefigureof Heliogabale, they supportArtaud'sview that the principlesshould remain distinct,in order that they avoid extinctionin an indeterminateOne.Of Heliogabale, Artaud writes:'Lavie d'Heliogabale me parait etre l'exemple typede cette sorte de dissociation de principes; et c'est l'image [...] de toutes lescontradictions humaines, et de la contradiction dans le principe, que j'ai vouludecrire en lui' (OC,vII, 74-75).However, the countering view, that the principles, double and distinct from oneanother, be reduced and brought back to a pre-existent transcendent andindeterminate Unity, is also suggested by Artaud's treatment of his characters.Heliogabale's veryname carrieswithin it the trace of othernames, each representingcountering forces and principles.These principles, as the following quotations willshow, have commingled and become indissociable in a reduction to the nameHeliogabale:Maisdans

GABALilya[...]Gibil, e feuquidetruit t deforme,maispreparea renaissance uPhinixrouge, ssu dufeu etquiest1'emblemee la femme. OC, II, 97)Not only does GABAL contain the name Gibil, representingfire (the masculine

principle), but it represents a fire that destroys and deforms (suggesting thepossibilityof that indissociablecommingling and unity of principlesto which Artaudis attracted).The image of commingling and of unity of principles is reinforcedbythe fact that the fire in the name Gibil allows for the renaissance of the femaleprinciple, representedby the red Phoenix.A further indication that Heliogabale is a name representingthe blending andreduction of principles contained in other names is made manifest by itsincorporationof the name of the god Bel 'dieu reducteur,par lequel tout se ramene

8Jacobsrefers o a similar ension between dentification nd distinctionwhen she describes herelationshipbetween the actor and the hieroglyph n Le thedtretsondouble:The embodied doubleactsout his fearsof anapparitionrom the beyond,yet at a givenmoment hides himself"behindhis own reality", he original igurewhom he doubles. And so he himself becomes the "apparition"hat threatens to appear- not from theoutside,but as the rendingof the original igurefrom within'(p. 57). The questionof the hieroglyphand itsrelationship o crueltyindicates that there are variousways in which Le theitret son doublemay be said tofunctionas a sort of obliquedoublefor thetextHiliogabale.



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au principe, dieu unitaire, eliminateur'(OC,VII, 98). Artaud, who has taken painsto identify and thus separatethe names of gods whose presence may be traced in thename Heliogabale,9 suggests that these names (and the principles they represent)must be reduced; they must return to the unity from which they emanate or elseremain mere effigies, mere representations separated from the force upon whichthey depend:Cecidit 'en reviensaux nomscontradictoireses dieux.Etj'appellecesdieuxdesnoms;ene lesappellepasdesdieux.Je disqueces nomsnommaientdesforces, ... ] des modalitesde la grandepuissanced'etrequise diversifie n principes, n essences,en substances,nelments.Une chosenomm6e st une chosemorte,et elle estmorteparcequ'elleests6par6e.(OC, vII, 62, 63)

The separate names comprising the name Heliogabale are mere effigies of theforces they are meant to represent. They are empty because distinct, and deadbecause named as distinct from one another. Hliogabale, it would appear,benefitsfrom the forces associated with the differentprinciples because he is the bearer ofthese forces, theirnames reunitedand commingledwithinhim, rather than distinct.The analyses of Roger Dadoun heighten the ambiguity inherent in Artaud'sattitude towardsthe figure of Heliogabale. Just as Artaud sees in Heliogabale both'l'exemple type de cette sorte de dissociation des principes'and the presence of thegod Bel, 'dieu reducteur, par lequel tout se ramene au principe, dieu unitaire,eliminateur' so Dadoun sees in the name Heliogabale both a 'de-contraction' ofcommingled names and the operation of an 'espace unitaire, homogene' whichproduces a reduction of principles. Thus Dadoun writesthat 'tout son texte intituleHeliogabale,... ] s'offre comme de-composition, de-contraction,de-nomination dunom Heliogabale' (p. 66). And in a reinforcement of the movement towardsdecontraction or dissociation, he notes that the stem EL of EL-GABAL evokes,biblically, the movement of a force exploding into several forces, suggesting acountering movement to that of the god Bel, and preservingthe ambiguity whichformsthe subjectof this article:Dans e textebiblique,ELdesigneunenuance,unequalite resparticuliereedieu,c'estdieucomme orce,commeenergieanimant acreation,mmanent uxformesmultiples el'etre;cettecirculation e l'undans e multiple,e multipleunifiepar l'6nergiedivineperpetuelle-ment mobile, provoque la mise au pluriel du nom EL, ce qui donne ELOHIM, le nom de dieucomme orceexplosant nforcesplurielles.Dadoun,p. 67)

On the other hand, the presence of the One within the multiple is highlightedbyhis analysisof the root GAB in Heliogabale, a syllableor root that is not only centralto the name Heliogabale, but which transformsthat name into a 'homogeneous,unitary space':Cetteracineveutdireaussi ... ] 'principe'.C'estdire vritablement, itt6ralementireque[...] toutes essignificationsndiqueesetats, ontraires,rincipeunitaire)ravaillentnosmosepermanente ans e memeterme,dans e GAB, racinepivotale,dunomd'Eliogabale.GAB travailledonc de l'int6rieure nom d'Eliogabale;l transformee nom en espacehomog&ne, nitaire,of les sym6triques,es echos, les contraires ...] se disposent,seheurtent,'epousent, 'agonisent.Dadoun,pp.73-74)9 RogerDadoun,'Le nomd'Heliogabaledansle texted'Artaud',Litterature,(197 ), 64-78 (p. 66).

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AnarchyndAndrogynynArtaud'sHdliogabale'Another example of 'l'espace unitaire, homogene' in which 'les contraires [.. .]se heurtent, s'epousent, s'agonisent' can be found in Artaud's treatment of theeunuchs Eutychien and Gannys. These eunuchs, like the castrated Gaulswhom hedescribes at various points in the text, are certainly not female, nor are they in asense really male. They are figures whose maleness has been diminished. Amutilation of the male genitalsresultsin a rise of the feminine at the expense of themale, a balancing of an original imbalance that distinguishesthe eunuch from theandrogynous figure.The latter (discussedmore fully below) is born with both maleand female attributes,the double united always alreadywithin the One, such thatthe androgyne is both double and One. Thus the eunuch and the androgyne aresimilar, but distinct, another fissure in the text suggesting a further doubling ofcharacters. Where the eunuch enjoys the blending of principles through a loss, theandrogynous figureblends principlesthat remainunited, though stillvisiblydistinct.

In both cases, there is a blending, however, of a double within a One.While this blending is true of both Gannys and Eutychien, Artaudcannot refrainfrom subjectingthem even furtherto the doubling that marks the structure of histext. Gannys and Eutychien, of differentnatures, balance and compensate for eachother, as if they were two halves of a whole. Gannys is describedas possessing 'unesprit subtil, une intelligence pratique et sagace', while Eutychien, 'une sorte defarceur attitre' '[fait] contrepoids au serieux de Gannys': 'Gannys le serieux, lesubtil, est double d'un second eunuque [. . .]. Ce second eunuque, Eutychien, est[... ] une nature amorphe, malleiable,et de la plus abjectefeminite. I1est necessairea Gannys' (OC,vII, 83-84).These examples reinforce the division in Artaud's attitude towards the doubleand the One. On the one hand, he creates characterswho representthe blending ofdual principles into a Unity or One (the eunuchs, the confusion of principles andgods reduced and subsumedby the name Heliogabale);on the other, he maintainshis preference for the separation of principles (the doubling and the distinctionbetween Somna and Moesa, between Eutychien and Gannys, and the separationofforces within Heliogabale). This division is repeated and developed in his furthertreatment of the One and the double in this work. That he should desire and valuethe separationof principles,principles that have always alreadybeen distinct at theorigin or within the One, is suggested by his statement 'les principes [...] nes'invententpas; ils se gardent, ils se communiquent' (OC,vni, 18).Yet Artaud resorts on another occasion to giving a high value to a Unity or a Onewhich he representsas 'le Chaos'.10In a characteristicdoubling of his position, hedepicts this chaos as eitherprecedingr coexisting ith he aforementionedprinciples.In one of these passages he writes of 'des principes qui rayonnaient au fond duSouffle du Chaos' (OC,vII, 22). It is not clear whether the Souffle as emerged as aseparate entity, an emission from the Chaos,or whether the two are indissociablylinked. Should the Soufflee housed within the Chaos, hen the principlescould besaid to exist within this Unity as well, be it a unity subject to the anarchy of

10That Artaud should associate Chaos with Unity at the origin of all things may be linked to Jacobs'scomments about the impossibility of locating an archaeological trace or first level in Hdliogabale:The templesof Hdliogabale,ike Artaud's novel, are founded on the ruins of former constructions. It is in these ruins, piled onupon the other according to a strict temporal order, that the arche-o-logist,the scientist of the arche,expects tofind highly structured traces of the past; but building on a foundation of ruins means building "withoutfoundations" and the seeker after truth finds the hierarchical levels leveled' (Jacobs, p. 75).

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antagonistic principles(le Chaos).f, on the other hand, the Souffles distinct from theChaos rom which it emanates as an emission, then the principles could be said toarise from their separationfrom the Chaos r Unity which precedes and transcendsthem. Either possibility could be inferred from the passage, for the relationshipbetween the Soufflend the Chaoss left unclear. It may, in fact, be possible to detectin Artaud'sdepiction of the Soufflenother instance of the doubling so characteristicof many of his texts. In his well-known analysis of the Soufflen Artaud's texts,Derrida points to a fissure,according to which the Soufflewhich threatensArtaud,that which is 'inspire depuis une autrevoix', the 'souffle d'un souffleurqui [. . ] mederobe cela meme qu'il laissevenir a moi et quej'ai cru pouvoir dire en mon nom'is doubled by a Soufflehat Artaud hopes to appropriate: 'Souffle qui prendraitpossession de soi en un lieu ou la proprietene seraitpas encore le vol'.1At some points in the text, Artaud seems to propose a model for the relationshipbetween the One and the double:an indeterminate One or Unity would exist at theorigin, then split into the double, only to unite again as a double within the One.Such a model is supported by the following description of the religion of whichHeliogabale (describedhere as an androgynousbeing) is the high priest:

La religionde I'UNqui se coupe en DEUXpour agir.Pour ETRE.Lareligionde laseparationnitialedeI'UN.UN etDEUX reunisdans epremier ndrogyne.Qui est LUI,l'homme.Et LUI, la femme.Enmemetemps.Reunis en UN. (OC,vII, 103)

This passage presents, then, the figure of a One at the origin that is in need ofdivision or doubling to proceed, indeed to BE, only to recuperate this doublingwithin its boundariesas the One.12 The figure of thepremierndrogynef thispassagecould be applied either to Heliogabale or to the One itself. In either case, theambiguity is preserved.The One (or Heliogabale) must divide itself into two to act,suggesting that its initial state is undivided. At the same time, this undivided One,aspremierndrogyne,s, by definition,alwaysalreadyivided, aving arisenfromthe verybeginning as the double and One within a double One. 3Interestingly,Detsch, in a separatecontext, also makes reference to the existenceof apremierndrogyne.is research leads him to refer to cosmogonic myths in whichthe progenitor of all creatures is both male and female, giving birth to the firsthuman, who is a hermaphrodite,like him/herself (Detsch, p. 39). While it would beimpossible to determine towhat extent Artaudhad in mind such cosmogonic mythsin his descriptionsof thepremierndrogynend the Religion e 'Un,this descriptioncan

'' JacquesDerrida, Laparolesoufflee',n L'Ecrituret adifferenceParis:Seuil, 1967),pp. 262, 266.12 Whileit would be tempting o detectthepresenceof a Hegeliandialectic n thisdescriptionof the Religiondel'Un,the movement of HegelianAufhebungr sublation does not account for the blind spot inherent inArtaud'sdescriptionof thisreligion,whichdepictsat one andthe sametimetheexistenceof apremierndrogyneand an (indivisible)One thatmustdivide nto twoin orderto be.13Stout makes an entirelydifferentreading of this passage,which he sees as representing he ultimateauthorityof male oneness:'Thus the revoltagainstthe Fatherstagedby Heliogabale'sreign is neverthelessrecuperatedby a newphallicorderthat absorbsandabolishesduality, iguredprincipally s sexualdifference,within a specificallymale oneness.Ironically,Artaud'sHeliogabaledethrones he Father hebetterto reinstateHis power in a new form' (p. 21).

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AnarchyndAndrogynyn Artaud'sHeliogabale'be seen to illuminate the way in which anotherrelationshipis structured n the text:that existingbetween anarchyand androgyny.Anarchy, characterizedby the war of principles, and androgyny, in which thedual principles coexist in relative harmony, share one characteristic: n both cases,the double is housed within a One. What the model of the Religion eL'Unsuggestsisthat the separation and opposition of One and Two, or of the double within theOne, is necessaryfor the One to BE, or to act. From this description, I would inferthat anarchy is more likely to be active and therefore ensure this BEING thanandrogyny, and that androgyny is more likely to fall prey to inertia or non-beingthan anarchy. While it is true that Artaud's descriptionsoscillate between, on theone hand, the preference for a movement towards Unity, in a reduction of thedouble to the One and, on the other, a desireto maintain a distinction between thetwo principles and the permanence of their war in order to avoid inertia, I detect,despitethis oscillation, a preferenceforthefigureofAnarchyover that ofAndrogynyin the text Heliogabale.Thus, while Artaudwrites that Heliogabale 'a eu de bonne heure le sens de l'unitequi est a la base de tous les mythes et de tous les noms', and while men engage inwar, writesArtaud, 'pour en finiravec cette separationdes principes', Heliogabalesa text that seems to lean towards a preferencefor Anarchy, 'cette guerrede l'espriten hostilite avec lui-meme', 'la guerre des effigies, des representations ou desprincipes' (OC,vII, 50, 72, 71, 70). It is this war of principles within Heliogabale,anarchiste-ne,hat particularly attracts Artaud: 'Mais ce qui beaucoup plus quel'Androgyne apparait dans cette image tournante [ . .] c'est l'idee de 1ANARCHIE':'Heliogabale est un anarchiste-ne [...] et tous ses actes de roi sont des actesd'anarchiste-ne,ennemi public de l'ordre,qui est un ennemi de l'ordrepublic;maisson anarchie, il la pratique d'abord en lui-meme et contre lui-meme' (OC,VII,I04).The anarchiste-neot only commits all acts 'avec art et tout en double', each gesturebeing double-edged and followingthe rhythmspecifiedby Artaud:

Ordre,D6sordre,Unit6,Anarchie,Poesie,Dissonance,Rythme,Discordance,Grandeur, uerilite,Generosite,Cruaute.(OC,VII,127-28)

He also practises, within his unified (and androgynous being) an antagonism (oranarchy)of opposites. The danger of this anarchy (a danger to which Heliogabale issubjectand of which he is ultimatelyvictim)is that it may lead to an auto-mutilationthat ends in utter destruction.Like the Gauls who castrate themselves in an act ofanarchy, and who die in a haemorrhaging of their desire for the practice of thatanarchy, Heliogabale is not content to remain an androgynous being. The twohalves of a whole do not coexist in harmonywithin him (a harmony that would havebeen suggestive of inertia) but wage war, only to end, finally, in a fatal auto-mutilation, for 'Heliogabale est un anarchiste applique qui commence par sedevorer lui-meme' (OC,vII, Io6).The only solution to this dilemma would be to practice an anarchy that issomehow ordered enough to prevent its own death, an anarchy that enlivens theopposites within the androgynous being, preserving them from inertia without

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extinguishing the being in which they are housed.14 It is this solution that was nodoubt impossibly conceived by Artaud by the suggestion of a One that harbourswithin it the double, but that manages to preserve its transcendence and itsdistinctnessfrom this dangerous, because self-destructive,doubling.While it is true that the text seems to prefer the force of anarchy to the unity ofthe androgynous being, it is also true that it never relinquishes the power of thelatter to complement the former. If Heliogabale is an anarchiste-ne,e is also, like allandrogynous figures, an androgyne-ne,aving always already born within him themale and female principles and the potential for their antagonism in anarchy, andwhilehisactions arean applicationof anarchicprinciples,they are also 'l'applicationd'une ide'e metaphysique et superieure de l'ordre, c'est-a-dire de l'unite' (OC,VII, 117).Heliogabale is an anarchisteouronne,aving enclosed within the symbol of thecrown or circle the forces of the masculine and the feminine, of the divine and thehuman. But his tendancy towardsanarchyleads him, as well, to the dangerousstateof the anarchisteecouronne,n which the warringforces collide and explode the limitsin which they had resided. The circlehaving been rent apart,the anarchisteecouronnelies haemorrhaging in a sewer, and the vibrations of antagonistic tones, onceconstitutive of a strangeand dissonantharmony, are replacedby silence.BROCK UNIVERSITY, ONTARIO LESLIE ANNE BOLDT-IRONS

14 Dadoun views this dilemma as the necessityof causing the bidimensionaland separatedelements ofHeliogabaleto spinrapidlyandvertiginously roundtheirpivot,the syllable/rootand theprincipleGAB.It isthis rapidand dizzying spinningthat createsunity:'Une des tensionsspecifiques,et constitutives,du texted'Artaudreside dans le conflitentre la necessit6d'un deploiementbidimensionneldes signifiants,'ecriturecommeinstrumentanalytiqueet figuratif,d6veloppementin6aireet ordonn6, 'ordre,si l'onpeutdire,du ilya, et le desird'empecherque les mots tombent,ue les figures e p6trifient,de faireen sorteque lespierresivent,que tournent aussi intens6mentque possible, es mots cylindriques, u coniques, que toutes les valeurs[... ]circulent 6nergiquement pour, dans un embrassement extreme, manifester le principe fondamentald'unite' p. 76).

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Anarchy and Androgyny in Heliogabalo