Beckett and Nothing (Paperback)

Daniela Caselli

ISBN 10: 0719087848 / ISBN 13: 9780719087844

Published by Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2012

About this Item

Paperback. Beckett's reception was characterised in its early stages by a sustained attention to nothing as a philosophical concept. Theodor Adorno, however, was quick to argue that Beckett's plays resisted - unlike Sartre's - having their nothing transformed into something. This Beckettian nothing, moreover, is often invested with the aura of the genius, either for eulogical or dismissive purposes. This volume invites its readership to understand the complex ways in which the Beckett canon both suggests and resists turning nothing into something by looking at specific, sometimes almost invisible ways in which 'little nothings' pervade the Beckett canon.The volume has two main functions: on the one hand, it looks at 'nothing' not only as a content but also a set of rhetorical strategies to reconsider afresh classic Beckett problems such as Irishness, silence, value, marginality, politics and the relationships between modernism and postmodernism and absence and presence. On the other, it focuses on 'nothing' in order to assess how the Beckett oeuvre can help us rethink contemporary preoccupations with materialism, neurology, sculpture, music and television. Both advanced students and scholars of Beckett will find the volume of interest. It comprises jargon-free chapters that analyse Beckett's prose, drama, film, television, manuscripts and marginalia. It will prove of interest to advanced students and scholars in English, French, Comparative Literature, Drama, Visual Studies, Philosophy, Music, Cinema and TV studies. -- . The volume explores the paradoxes at the core of Beckett's poetics through the notion of 'nothing', analysed in its many incarnations in Beckett's prose works, plays, TV plays and adaptations. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780719087844

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Beckett and Nothing (Paperback)
• Publisher: Manchester University Press, Manchester
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719087848
• ISBN 13: 9780719087844
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Beckett’s reception was characterised in its early stages by a sustained attention to nothing as a philosophical concept. Theodor Adorno, however, was quick to argue that Beckett’s plays resisted – unlike Sartre’s – having their nothing transformed into something. This Beckettian nothing, moreover, is often invested with the aura of the genius, either for eulogical or dismissive purposes. This volume invites its readership to understand the complex ways in which the Beckett canon both suggests and resists turning nothing into something by looking at specific, sometimes almost invisible ways in which ‘little nothings’ pervade the Beckett canon.

The volume has two main functions: on the one hand, it looks at ‘nothing’ not only as a content but also a set of rhetorical strategies to reconsider afresh classic Beckett problems such as Irishness, silence, value, marginality, politics and the relationships between modernism and postmodernism and absence and presence. On the other, it focuses on ‘nothing’ in order to assess how the Beckett oeuvre can help us rethink contemporary preoccupations with materialism, neurology, sculpture, music and television.

Both advanced students and scholars of Beckett will find the volume of interest. It comprises jargon-free chapters that analyse Beckett’s prose, drama, film, television, manuscripts and marginalia. It will prove of interest to advanced students and scholars in English, French, Comparative Literature, Drama, Visual Studies, Philosophy, Music, Cinema and TV studies.

An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

About the Author

Daniela Caselli is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture at the University of Manchester.