The End of a World in Cocteau's “realist” ballets (1917-1921)

Abstract

Between 1917 and 1921, Jean Cocteau conceived and produced three ballets, Parade (with Satie and Picasso), Le boeuf sur le toit (with Milhaud) and Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel (with Les Six). These three works would have stemmed from a well-known challenge issued to him by Serge Diaghilev, «Étonne moi!» To this request the poet responded on the one hand by implementing strategies of risk in the aesthetic and artistic spheres, and on the other by interpreting the era of change and imminent doom in which he operated. The three ballets will be investigated in light of the benjaminian concept of “threshold” and the category of ludusformulated by Caillois.