Beckett's Words: The Promise of Happiness in a Time of Mourning PDF
Preview Beckett's Words: The Promise of Happiness in a Time of Mourning
Beckett’s Words The Promise of Happiness in a Time of Mourning i Also available from Bloomsbury Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett, James Knowlson Samuel Beckett: A Curated Life, Judith Wilkinson The Dramatic Works of Samuel Beckett, Charles A. Carpenter ii Beckett’s Words The Promise of Happiness in a Time of Mourning DAviD KleinBerg-levin Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc iii Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2015 © David Kleinberg-Levin, 2015 David Kleinberg-Levin has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-47421-685-2 PB: 978-1-47421-683-8 ePDF: 978-1-47421-686-9 ePub: 978-1-47421-688-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk iv The dog believes that his master is at the door. But can he also believe that his master will come the day after tomorrow? Can someone have hope only if able to talk? —Only someone who has mastered the use of language. Situations of hoping are instances of this complicated form of life. —Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations v vi COnTenTS Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations x Prologue: Nothing . . . But Words: Words and Tears 1 PArT One No Theodicy: A Chance of Happiness? 85 1 Negative Dialectics 87 2 In the Secret of Guilt: Punishment as Meaning 97 3 Political Theology: Old Dictations, Old Knots 107 4 Ending the Endings: The Endgame of Theodicy 119 PArT TWO The Utopian Idea: Remembering the Future in the Past 127 1 Paradise: Nowhere—But Here! 129 2 Tales for Children: Retrieving the Enchantment 139 3 Hope and Despair in a Time of Mourning 145 4 Waiting: In the Meantime 155 5 In the Event of a New Word 159 PArT THree After Hegel, Beckett’s How It Is: Approaching Justice with Infinite Slowness 173 1 Swamp: Justice in the State of Nature 175 2 The Struggle for Acknowledgement and Recognition 185 vii viii COnTenTS 3 Cruelty and Kindness: Humanity in Question 207 4 The Human Voice: Of Promises and Solaces 217 5 Redeeming Words 221 6 Where in the World is Justice? 229 Notes 257 Bibliography 299 Permissions 308 Index 310 ACKnOWleDgeMenTS I would like here to remember and acknowledge, with heartfelt thanks, a few friends with whom, since I began to contemplate writing something on Beckett, I have enjoyed conversations that have contributed in significant ways to making this present work a much better undertaking than it otherwise would have been. Hoping that my increasingly weak memory is not failing me, I wish in particular to thank Jay Bernstein, Gerald Bruns, Seamus Carey, William J. Earle, Doris Gahler, Robert Hullot-Kentor, Michael McGillen, Gregg Horowitz, John S. Rockwell, and David C. Wood. It should of course be understood that I alone am responsible for the words in this book. I thank the Samuel Beckett Estate, Grove Atlantic, and Faber & Faber for permission to use textual material from Beckett’s published works. See the permissions page at the end of this volume. For the cover image of Et in Arcadia Ego (1618–1622) by Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (Il Guercino), I thank the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico, Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della Città di Roma. This lovely painting, which I am very fond of, is on exhibit in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome. The book’s cover Only a part of the painting is shown on the cover of this volume. Not shown is the second, younger shepherd, whose gentle visage is lit up by the sun shining into the clearing. Also not shown is an owl, Minerva’s delegate, perched on the branch of a tree overlooking the skull. The skull that the two astonished shepherds encounter, evoking the lonely soliloquies of Beckett’s prose “skullscapes,” should remind us that, even in paradise, it is Death that writes the last sentence. The lower tree branch, gesturing on the right, minatory and ominous, suggests Death’s bony fingers, extending the justice of the word. ix
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