The book reveals how the fantastic is used in modern theatre as a manipulative device to encode the unspeakable and control audience response, challenging conventional readings of all authors who use the fantastic.

"Who are the monsters in Jean Cocteau s Infernal Machine ? Eynat-Confino s absorbing study gives us all facets of this central theme of Cocteau s modern classic and the ways monstrosity relates to Cocteau s self image as homosexual and poet. A must read for readers interested in Cocteau, modern French theater, and gender and gay studies. " - John M Clum, Professor of Theater Studies and English Duke University and author of Still Acting Gay: Male Homosexuality in Modern Drama and Something for the Boys: Musical Theater and Gay Culture

Autorentext
IRENE EYNAT-CONFINO is Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Studies, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

Inhalt
Introduction The Infernal Machine The Sphinx Laius, Tiresias, and Jocasta Oedipus Dramatic Strategies and Stratagems Cocteau and his Monster Visibility, Invisibility, and the Fantastic Ethics, Alterity, and Designed Emotion