Overview

Existentialism and poststructuralism have provided the two main theoretical approaches to Samuel Beckett's work. These influential philosophical movements, however, owe a great debt to the phenomenological tradition. This volume, with contributions by major international scholars, examines the phenomenal in Beckett's literary worlds, comparing and contrasting his writing with key figures including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It advances an analysis of hitherto unexplored phenomenological themes, such as nausea, immaturity and sleep, in Beckett's work. Through an exploration of specific thinkers and Beckett's own artistic method, it offers the first sustained and comprehensive account of Beckettian phenomenology.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dr Ulrika Maude (University of Bristol, UK) ,  Dr Matthew Feldman (University of York, UK) ,  Chris Ackerley (University of Otago) ,  Prof. Steven Connor
Publisher:   Continuum Publishing Corporation
Imprint:   Continuum Publishing Corporation
Edition:   NIPPOD
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.342kg
ISBN:  

9781441123176

ISBN 10:   1441123172
Pages:   226
Publication Date:   22 December 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Beckettian Phenomenologies? Ulrika Maude (University of Durham) and Matthew Feldman (University of Northampton) PART I: BECKETT AND PHENOMENOLOGY 1. ‘But what was this pursuit of meaning, in this indifference to meaning?': Beckett, Husserl and ‘Meaning Creation', Matthew Feldman (University of Northampton) 2. Phenomenologies of the Nothing: Democritus, Heidegger, Beckett, Shane Weller (University of Kent at Canterbury) 3. Beckett and Sartre: The Nauseous Character of All Flesh, Steven Connor (Birkbeck College, University of London) 4. ‘Material of a Strictly Peculiar Order': Beckett, Merleau-Ponty and Perception, Ulrika Maude (University of Durham) PART II: BECKETT'S PHENOMENOLOGIES 5. Between Art-world and Life-world: Beckett's Dream of Fair to Middling Women, Mark Nixon (University of Reading) 6. Murphydurke, or towards a Phenomenology of Immaturity, Jean-Michel Rabaté (University of Pennsylvania) 7. Bodily Histories: Beckett and the Phenomenological Approach to the Other, Steven Matthews (Oxford Brookes University) 8. What Remains of Beckett: Evasion and History, Daniel Katz (Université de Paris VII) 9. Beckett's Ghost Dramas: Monitoring a Phenomenology of Sleep, Paul Sheehan (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) 10. Living the Unnamable: A Phenomenology of Reading, Paul Stewart (University of Nicosia) 11. The ‘Distinct Context of Relevant Knowledge': Beckett's ‘Yellow' and the Phenomenology of Annotation, Chris Ackerley (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) Index

Reviews

Though phenomenology and its offshoot, existentialism, were very much in the air when Beckett's creative genius first became known in Europe and abroad, to date no study has looked as comprehensively as does Beckett and Phenomenology at the interconnections between his writing and that phrlosophkal perspective, however diverse its manifestations. All the greats are there: From Husserl to Sartre to Merleau-Ponty, Ricoeur, and beyond. And Beckett's greatness, however diverse its manifestations, is revealed in a very new light. Beckett and Phenomenology is truly a phenomenology of Beckett's world! - Professor Lois Oppenheim, Past President of The Samuel Beckett Society. Beckett and Phenomenology offers a cogent and convincing exploration of Beckett's work in the light of phenomenological ideas and will undoubtedly be of interest to Beckett scholars. It is an accomplished study of what must now be viewed as a key aspect of contemporary Beckett studies. -Review of English Studies

Author Information

Ulrika Maude is a Senior Lecturer in Beckett Studies and Modernism in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Reading. Matthew Feldman is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century History at the University of Northampton, UK.

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