Art Spiegelman is one of the most important figures in the history of American comics. His work Maus (1980 and 1991) is arguably the landmark text in the field of comic book studies. Given the relatively recent reissue of his first collection Breakdowns (2008) and the publication of his interview/essay collection/scrapbook Metamaus (2011), it is likely that his work will continue to be the subject of critical interest. This thesis concerns the collections Breakdowns (1977 and 2008), Maus (1980 and 1991) and In the Shadow of No Towers (2004). It represents the first book-length extended study of Spiegelman s three major works. The central argument put forth in this thesis is that the Spiegelman oeuvre articulates and manifests a madness which its author perceives to underlie supposedly rational society. In support of this thesis I will employ critical models from the following fields: Holocaust studies, trauma theory, the anti-psychiatry movement, theories concerning the representation of madness, formalist analyses of comics, and Genette s narratological taxonomy.

O presente trabalho visa estabelecer um exercício de perspectiva entre arte e loucura. Atentando para aquilo que é outro, heterogêneo, estrangeiro, constrói- se o terreno para perguntar o que pode a loucura dizer e revelar sobre a arte e a história da arte, e o que pode a arte dizer sobre a loucura. Paralelamente, pergunta-se pelo potencial da antropologia em relação a ambas: como a etnografia e a atitude antropológica podem se construir como paradigma para a teoria e a crítica de arte? A partir da imersão etnográfica em um contexto de reclusão onde arte e loucura se encontram - a oficina de criatividade de um hospital psiquiátrico -, pergunta-se o que podem a antropologia e a etnografia diante da loucura, suas obras e processos. Discute-se, então, uma “virada etnográfica” na arte contemporânea e uma “virada antropológica” ou “etnográfica”, ainda por realizar, na crítica de arte, situando-a enquanto experiência vivida, imersão e criação. Como transformar essas experiências em paradigma para pensar não só as artes dos outros, mas outras artes, outras possibilidades e modos de ser da arte? A partir de visões de diferentes formas pelas quais a busca e o contato com a alteridade se fizeram nas artes visuais, chega-se a indagar pela arte dos loucos. Nesse percurso são mobilizados diferentes referenciais como o Surrealismo, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, entre outros. Nesse exercício, não se perdeu de vista a dimensão política da exclusão dos atores sociais tidos como loucos. A escrita foi vista enquanto tarefa ética frente à memória do sofrimento dos excluídos. A todo o instante, é retomado o questionamento sobre como seguir a linha que liga arte e loucura, sem confirmar compromissos policiais e asilares com as instituições intoleráveis e repressivas de nossa cultura. / This thesis intends to undertake an exercise of perspective between the fields of art and madness. Focusing on what is heterogeneous, stranger, other respect to ourselves and our culture, it puts forward the question about what can madness reveal about art and the history of art, and what can art tell us about madness. This thesis also asks about the potential of anthropology on relating to both art and madness: how can ethnography and an anthropological attitude constitute themselves as a paradigm to art criticism and to the theory of art? Departing from the ethnographic immersion into a universe of reclusion where art and madness meet – the creativity workshop of a psychiatric hospital -, this dissertation investigates the potentialities of anthropology and ethnography in face of madness, its works and processes. An “ethnographic turn” in contemporary art is, then, discussed, as well as an “ethnographic turn”, yet to accomplish, in art criticism, figuring it as intensive experience, immersion and process of creation. How to transform these experiences into a paradigm not just to think the arts of the others (“outsider arts”), but also to think other kinds of art, different possibilities and alternative concepts of art? Departing from several different ways by which the quest and the contact with alterity and otherness were made in the visual arts, the thesis approaches the art of the insane. Along this path, different artistic and philosophical references are mobilized such as Surrealism, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, among others. In this exercise, the political aspects regarding the process of exclusion of social actors categorized as mad are never out of sight. The act of writing was assumed as an ethical task before the necessity of remembering the suffering inflicted to the mad by society. The text constantly reiterates the questioning about how to follow the path that connects art and madness without confirming compromises with intolerable and repressive institutions of our culture.

O presente trabalho visa estabelecer um exercício de perspectiva entre arte e loucura. Atentando para aquilo que é outro, heterogêneo, estrangeiro, constrói- se o terreno para perguntar o que pode a loucura dizer e revelar sobre a arte e a história da arte, e o que pode a arte dizer sobre a loucura. Paralelamente, pergunta-se pelo potencial da antropologia em relação a ambas: como a etnografia e a atitude antropológica podem se construir como paradigma para a teoria e a crítica de arte? A partir da imersão etnográfica em um contexto de reclusão onde arte e loucura se encontram - a oficina de criatividade de um hospital psiquiátrico -, pergunta-se o que podem a antropologia e a etnografia diante da loucura, suas obras e processos. Discute-se, então, uma “virada etnográfica” na arte contemporânea e uma “virada antropológica” ou “etnográfica”, ainda por realizar, na crítica de arte, situando-a enquanto experiência vivida, imersão e criação. Como transformar essas experiências em paradigma para pensar não só as artes dos outros, mas outras artes, outras possibilidades e modos de ser da arte? A partir de visões de diferentes formas pelas quais a busca e o contato com a alteridade se fizeram nas artes visuais, chega-se a indagar pela arte dos loucos. Nesse percurso são mobilizados diferentes referenciais como o Surrealismo, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, entre outros. Nesse exercício, não se perdeu de vista a dimensão política da exclusão dos atores sociais tidos como loucos. A escrita foi vista enquanto tarefa ética frente à memória do sofrimento dos excluídos. A todo o instante, é retomado o questionamento sobre como seguir a linha que liga arte e loucura, sem confirmar compromissos policiais e asilares com as instituições intoleráveis e repressivas de nossa cultura. / This thesis intends to undertake an exercise of perspective between the fields of art and madness. Focusing on what is heterogeneous, stranger, other respect to ourselves and our culture, it puts forward the question about what can madness reveal about art and the history of art, and what can art tell us about madness. This thesis also asks about the potential of anthropology on relating to both art and madness: how can ethnography and an anthropological attitude constitute themselves as a paradigm to art criticism and to the theory of art? Departing from the ethnographic immersion into a universe of reclusion where art and madness meet – the creativity workshop of a psychiatric hospital -, this dissertation investigates the potentialities of anthropology and ethnography in face of madness, its works and processes. An “ethnographic turn” in contemporary art is, then, discussed, as well as an “ethnographic turn”, yet to accomplish, in art criticism, figuring it as intensive experience, immersion and process of creation. How to transform these experiences into a paradigm not just to think the arts of the others (“outsider arts”), but also to think other kinds of art, different possibilities and alternative concepts of art? Departing from several different ways by which the quest and the contact with alterity and otherness were made in the visual arts, the thesis approaches the art of the insane. Along this path, different artistic and philosophical references are mobilized such as Surrealism, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, among others. In this exercise, the political aspects regarding the process of exclusion of social actors categorized as mad are never out of sight. The act of writing was assumed as an ethical task before the necessity of remembering the suffering inflicted to the mad by society. The text constantly reiterates the questioning about how to follow the path that connects art and madness without confirming compromises with intolerable and repressive institutions of our culture.

O presente trabalho visa estabelecer um exercício de perspectiva entre arte e loucura. Atentando para aquilo que é outro, heterogêneo, estrangeiro, constrói- se o terreno para perguntar o que pode a loucura dizer e revelar sobre a arte e a história da arte, e o que pode a arte dizer sobre a loucura. Paralelamente, pergunta-se pelo potencial da antropologia em relação a ambas: como a etnografia e a atitude antropológica podem se construir como paradigma para a teoria e a crítica de arte? A partir da imersão etnográfica em um contexto de reclusão onde arte e loucura se encontram - a oficina de criatividade de um hospital psiquiátrico -, pergunta-se o que podem a antropologia e a etnografia diante da loucura, suas obras e processos. Discute-se, então, uma “virada etnográfica” na arte contemporânea e uma “virada antropológica” ou “etnográfica”, ainda por realizar, na crítica de arte, situando-a enquanto experiência vivida, imersão e criação. Como transformar essas experiências em paradigma para pensar não só as artes dos outros, mas outras artes, outras possibilidades e modos de ser da arte? A partir de visões de diferentes formas pelas quais a busca e o contato com a alteridade se fizeram nas artes visuais, chega-se a indagar pela arte dos loucos. Nesse percurso são mobilizados diferentes referenciais como o Surrealismo, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, entre outros. Nesse exercício, não se perdeu de vista a dimensão política da exclusão dos atores sociais tidos como loucos. A escrita foi vista enquanto tarefa ética frente à memória do sofrimento dos excluídos. A todo o instante, é retomado o questionamento sobre como seguir a linha que liga arte e loucura, sem confirmar compromissos policiais e asilares com as instituições intoleráveis e repressivas de nossa cultura. / This thesis intends to undertake an exercise of perspective between the fields of art and madness. Focusing on what is heterogeneous, stranger, other respect to ourselves and our culture, it puts forward the question about what can madness reveal about art and the history of art, and what can art tell us about madness. This thesis also asks about the potential of anthropology on relating to both art and madness: how can ethnography and an anthropological attitude constitute themselves as a paradigm to art criticism and to the theory of art? Departing from the ethnographic immersion into a universe of reclusion where art and madness meet – the creativity workshop of a psychiatric hospital -, this dissertation investigates the potentialities of anthropology and ethnography in face of madness, its works and processes. An “ethnographic turn” in contemporary art is, then, discussed, as well as an “ethnographic turn”, yet to accomplish, in art criticism, figuring it as intensive experience, immersion and process of creation. How to transform these experiences into a paradigm not just to think the arts of the others (“outsider arts”), but also to think other kinds of art, different possibilities and alternative concepts of art? Departing from several different ways by which the quest and the contact with alterity and otherness were made in the visual arts, the thesis approaches the art of the insane. Along this path, different artistic and philosophical references are mobilized such as Surrealism, Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer, Bispo do Rosário, Michel Foucault, among others. In this exercise, the political aspects regarding the process of exclusion of social actors categorized as mad are never out of sight. The act of writing was assumed as an ethical task before the necessity of remembering the suffering inflicted to the mad by society. The text constantly reiterates the questioning about how to follow the path that connects art and madness without confirming compromises with intolerable and repressive institutions of our culture.

A quelle(s) logique(s) répondent les dispositifs de création réalisés par Antonin Artaud et David Nebreda ? Quel statut attribuer à leurs « œuvres », si tant est que l’on puisse accoler cette appellation à leurs travaux ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous mènerons une réflexion d’ordre esthétique et nous nous interrogerons parallèlement sur la spécificité du processus de création dans la psychose. Nous étudierons les productions d’Artaud et de Nebreda sous l’angle de la mise en scène et de la performativité. Nous mettrons également en lumière l’abolition de la représentation, l’effondrement de la scène et les limites du jeu / je. Nous montrerons ainsi la prédominance des registres Réel et Imaginaire conçus par Jacques Lacan. Chez ces « artistes » transgressant les frontières des genres et de l’art, les manifestations incontrôlées du corps et les conflits intrapsychiques donnent lieu à des recréations simultanées du monde et du langage, qui, en même temps qu’elles s’apparentent au déroulement d’une cérémonie de mise à mort, tracent des signes inédits, forment d’étranges parcours et s’orientent vers l’horizon d’une nouvelle naissance. / Which logic is guiding the multimodal creations proposed by Antonin Artaud and David Nebreda ? What kind of status can be applied to their “(art)works” ? In order to answer these questions, we will lead an esthetical research and study concurrently the specificities of the creative process in psychosis. We will examine Artaud’s and Nebreda’s productions through the notions of setting and performativity. We will underline the abolition of representation and the crumbling of the stage as well as the limits of play / subjectivity. We will show the predominance of the Real and Imaginary registers as they have been conceived by JacquesLacan. By Artaud and Nebreda, the uncontrolled corporal manifestations and the intra-psychicconflicts generate simultaneous recreations of the body and language as, in the same time, they achieve a sort of sort killing ceremony, tracing unseen signs, outlining strange trails and pointing toward the horizon of a new birth.