Samuel Beckett

and the

End of Modernity

I From where to start?   To write about Samuel Beckett’s theatre it is, for me, an

irreverent act since we face a work if an extreme complexity and of a reading remarkably difficult, if not impossible.

In my estimation, Beckett was the most intractable playwright of the twentieth century.

Introduction

I From where to start?   I say irreverent because the very to attempt an

‘explanation’, and I do not dare to say an interpretation, runs the risk to impose to the texts a reading, even one very intelligent and subtle, external to them lead by the urgency to elucidate ‘something’ of what the text would seem to say instead of letting the texts to speak for themselves.

Introduction

I From where to start?   From my part I prefer the texts to speak, that is; engage

in an hermeneutical reading in the philosophical orientation of this activity: an intimate reading, close, following the reading practice which Derrida transmitted to us.

Introduction

I From where to start?   However, before engaging in my reading of Beckett’

short plays (or rather spectacular texts), it is absolutely necessary to clearly situate my reading position with respect to Beckett’s texts, and particularly pertaining to the short plays, which are the focus of our study.

Introduction

I From where to start?   My interest in Beckett’s writing it is framed in a larger

investigation which is strongly inscribed on the end of Modernity and also as it regards Beckett’s place in this closure.

Thus, in order to make my reading of these short texts accessible to the reader it is critical to situate Beckett in relation to the following points: firstly, to engage in a reflexion on the cultural and critical context, end secondly, a reflexive approach to these texts.

Introduction

I From where to start?   As regards the first point, we will explore the

relationship between Beckett and Modernity, and then the demarcation of capital aspects regarding the criticism on his work.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   Since there are several definitions and positions with

respect to Modernity, it is necessary to clearly indicate of which Modernity I speak about.

In my estimation, Modernity starts toward the end of the twentieth century, around 1896 with the staging of Ubu Roi by Aurélian-Marie Lugné Poe in the Théâtre de l’Œuvre, in Paris.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   This work, written by Alfred Jarry, marks the beginning

of Modernity by introducing the paradigm (as Tomas Kuhn understand it), which will be developed until the 1920s.

What follows, is the extension of Modernity (normal science according to Kuhn) which will lead to the closure of Modernity by the 1950s.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   The fact that Beckett finds himself tan the temporal

framework of Modernity (1896-1950) does not imply that he was part of it.

Beckett’s critics have never considered this possibility which may explain, in a definitive manner, why Beckett introduces a type of writing that has no precedents and successors.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   The very fact that critics consider Beckett as a writer of

Modernity or Post-Modernity avant-la-lettrer, explains the surprising confusion of critics facing Beckett’s writing.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   Beckett begins to write toward the end of the 1930;

Murphy in 1938, the trilogy central to his writing project (Molly in 1947, Malone dies, in 1948, and The Unnmable in 1949), and theatre Works toward the end of the 1940, such as Eleutheria, and Waiting for Godot in 1952 (but written between 1948-1949), that is, when Modernity had already come to an end.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   It is for this reason that I find inconceivable even to

suggest that what Beckett was doing during those years, was to construct a different Modernity.

In short, Beckett is not a writer belonging of Modernity or Post-Modernity, but a writer who brings theatrical modernity (and narrative) to its obliteration.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   Beckett inhabits a luminal space, a transitional one,

where there is not a before or an after: he is there, alone, fixed in this space where it does not exists but a self-centre directionality, in which circularity actualises itself in a language which does not say anything any longer to anybody , except to itself by means of an infinite iterativity.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   After Beckett, theatre, as we knew it, immobilises itself:

all that remains is the performance of a word always differed.

Beckett’s writing coincides with the end of Modernity because what his writing provokes in the first place.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   After Beckett everything has been said; writing as

meaning evaporates itself.

Only a residue of sound of the word remains: a pure signifier which never finds its signified.

Here lays the scriptural problematic (in the sense of Barthes [1984]) of Beckett’s textual performativity.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   In the very vast bibliography on Beckett’s work he is

normally situated as a writer of High Modernity (1900s-1930s), and also, but less often, as a postmodern writer avant-la-lettre.

My investigations on this problematic, as we establish it in Intersecciones III (2011: 175-250 and 291-338), demonstrate that Beckett never participated of the narrative aesthetic and devices of Modernity began by James Joyce in the 1920s.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   The fact that Beckett is placed within the temporal

frame of Modernity does not imply at all that he was part of it. In my estimation critics have never consider this possibility, one that, in fact, could explain in a definitive manner why Beckett introduced a type of writing without precedents, and in a certain way without successors.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   The very fact that Beckett is considered as a writer

belonging to Modernity or to Post-Modernity underscore the confusion and surprise of critics faced to Beckett’s writing.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   Beckett began to publish towards the end of the 1930s

(Murphy in 1938), (Waiting for Godot in 1949) and the trilogy, fundamental in Beckett’s writing project between 1951 and 1953 (Molloy in 1951, Malone dies in 1951 and The Unnammable in 1953), that is, when Modernity had already come to an end.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   It is impossible, then, to conceive Beckett engaging in

de construction of a different Modernity.

The problem resides in knowing to which temporality and which notion of Modernity are at play here, and furthermore.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   For us, Modernity starts towards the end of the XIX

century and ends around 1925 when the introduction of paradigms (Khun, 1970) come to an end, and continues as normal science (only development of the same) until the 1950s. (Khun, 1970).

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   The introduction of narrative Modernity by Joyce, and

the closure of Modernity towards the 1920s, leads Beckett to a reflexion similar to that of Jorge Luis Borges in the 1940s, that is, how to avoid the model introduced by Joyce.

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity   In my estimation, not in modern painting but rather in

the Pop Art that begins with artists such Duchamp and Mondrian at the beginning of the XXth century, artists who were not either part of the art of Modernity established by the isms of the beginning of the XXth century (De Toro, 2011).

Introduction

II Beckett and Modernity    In fact, Beckett does not leave any trace of the modern

novel, and he brings modern literature to a crashing end. Becket is placed in the very transition of Modernity to Post-Modernity, and it is this his place of work and this transitional space is what we study.

Introduction