Samuel Beckett: a guide for the perplexed PDF
Preview Samuel Beckett: a guide for the perplexed
BECKETT: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED THE GUIDES FOR THE PERPLEXED SERIES Continuum’s Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. Related titles include: Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed Claire Colebrook Derrida: A Guide for the Perplexed Julian Wolfreys Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed Steven Earnshaw Literary Theory: A Guide for the Perplexed Mary Klages Tolstoy: A Guide for the Perplexed Jeff Love BECKETT: A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED JONATHAN BOULTER Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704 11 York Road New York London SE1 7NX NY 10038 © Jonathan Boulter 2008 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. Jonathan Boulter has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-8264-9267-8 (hardback) 978-0-8264-8195-5 (paperback) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Man disappears. This is an affirmation. —Blanchot, The Infi nite Conversation This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Acknowledgments viii 1. Introduction 1 Part I: Drama 2. Waiting for Godot and Endgame 27 3. Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days, Play, Not I 52 Part II: Prose 4. Murphy and Watt 81 5. Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable 108 6. Texts for Nothing, The Second Trilogy 130 7. Conclusion 154 Notes 162 Bibliography 170 Index 179 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This is dedicated to Mitra Foroutan and Margaret Boulter. I also thank my students who have endured my enthusiasm for Beckett over the years, particularly those in my senior Beckett seminars at Saint Francis Xavier University and The University of Western Ontario. I gratefully acknowledge Faber and Faber Ltd for permitting quota- tion from Samuel Beckett’s work. The following material is used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.: ‘Not I’ Copyright © 1963 by Samuel Beckett, ‘Play’ Copyright © 1973 by Samuel Beckett, ‘Waiting for Godot’ Copyright © 1954 by Grove Press, Inc. Copyright Renewed © 1982 by Samuel Beckett, ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’ Copyright © 1957 by Samuel Beckett. Copyright © 1958, 1959, 1960 by Grove Press, Inc. and ‘Happy Days Copyright © 1961 by Grove Press, Inc. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION We need a dreamworld in order to discover the features of the real world we think we inhabit. —Paul Feyerabend, Against Method BACKGROUND AND INFLUENCE Samuel Beckett (1906–89) is one of the most important and influ- ential writers of the twentieth century. Born into a middle-class Protestant family in Dublin, Beckett studied Modern Languages (French and Italian) at Trinity College, earning a B.A. in 1927. In 1928, after a short and unsuccessful stint as a teacher at Campbell College, Belfast, Beckett became lecteur at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris replacing Thomas MacGreevy, the person respon- sible for introducing Beckett to James Joyce. Beckett was massively influenced by his fellow Irishman’s writing and in fact published an essay on Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (‘Dante . . . Bruno. Vico . . Joyce’) in 1929, the same year that he published his first short story ‘Assump- tion’. In 1934, while living in London, Beckett published More Pricks than Kicks, a collection of short stories and in 1936 he completed his novel Murphy (which was published in 1938). In 1937, Beckett moved to Paris and made France his permanent home until his death in 1989. Beckett’s early works, including the novel Watt (published in 1953), the last novel to be written in English before Beckett turned to writ- ing in French in 1946, failed to attract much critical attention.1 It was while Beckett was writing his first novel trilogy, which includes Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951), and The Unnamable (1953), that Beckett produced his most famous work and indeed the play that was 1
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