Overview

The year 2006 marked the centenary of the birth of Nobel-Prize winning playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. To commemorate the occasion, this collection brings together twenty-three leading international Beckett scholars from ten countries, who take on the centenary challenge of revolving it all : that is, going back to Beckett -the title of an earlier study by critic Ruby Cohn, to whom the book is dedicated-in order to rethink traditional readings and theories; provide new contexts and associations; and reassess his impact on the modern imagination and legacy to future generations. These original essays, most first presented by the Samuel Beckett Working Group at the Dublin centenary celebration, are divided into three sections: (1) Thinking through Beckett, (2) Shifting Perspectives, and (3) Echoing Beckett. As repeatedly in his canon, images precede words. The book opens with stills from films of experimental filmmaker Peter Gidal and unpublished excerpts from Beckett's 1936-37 German Travel Diaries, presented by Beckett biographer James Knowlson, with permission from the Beckett estate. Renowned director and theatre theoretician Herbert Blau follows with his personal Beckett thinking through. Others in Part I explore Beckett and philosophy (Abbott), the influences of Bergson (Gontarski) and Leibniz (Mori), Beckett and autobiography (Locatelli), and Agamben on post-Holocaust testimony (Jones). Essays in Part II recontextualize Beckett's works in relation to iconography (Moorjani), film theoretician Rudolf Arnheim (Engelberts), Marshall McLuhan (Ben-Zvi), exilic writing (McMullan), Pierre Bourdieu's literary field (Siess), romanticism (Brater), social theorists Adorno and Horkheimer (Degani-Raz), and performance issues (Rodriguez-Gago). Part III relates Beckett's writing to that of Yeats (Okamuro), Paul Auster (Campbell), Caryl Churchill (Diamond), William Saroyan (Bryden), Minoru Betsuyaku and Harold Pinter (Tanaka) and Morton Feldman and Jasper Johns (Laws). Finally, Beckett himself becomes a character in other playwrights' works (Zeifman). Taken together these essays make a clear case for the challenges and rewards of thinking through Beckett in his second century.

Full Product Details

Author:   Linda Ben-Zvi (Professor of Theatre Studies and Professor Emerita, English and Theatre, Tel Aviv University; Colorado State University) ,  Angela Moorjani (Emerita Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics (French), University of Maryland-UMBC)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9780195325485

ISBN 10:   0195325486
Pages:   352
Publication Date:   16 January 2008
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

Images: For Ruby Cohn Peter Gidal: Still for Ruby James Knowlson: Beckett the Tourist: Bamberg and Wurzburg Part I. Thinking through Beckett Herbert Blau: Apnea and True Illusion: Breath(less) in Beckett David Houston Jones: From Contumacy to Shame: Reading Beckett's Testimonies with Agamben Carla Locatelli: Projections: Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Not I as Autobiographies H. Porter Abbott: I am Not a Philosopher S. E. Gontarski: Recovering Beckett's Bergsonism Naoya Mori: No Body Is at Rest: The Legacy of Leibniz's Force in Beckett's Oeuvre Part II. Shifting Perspectives Angela Moorjani: Bounded Boundlessness: Reflecting on Counterpoint and Iconography in Beckett's Play Enoch Brater: Beckett's Romanticism Matthijs Engelberts: Film and Film: Beckett and Early Film Theory Anna McMullan: Beckett's Theatre: Embodying Alterity Jurgen Siess: Beckett's Posture in the French Literary Field Irit Degani-Raz: The Spear of Telephus in Krapp's Last Tape Antonia Rodriguez-Gago: Refiguring the Stage Body through the Mechanical Re-Production of Memory Part III. Echoing Beckett Minako Okamuro: Words and Music,...but the clouds..., and Yeats's The Tower Catherine Laws: Beckett--Feldman--Johns Mariko Hori Tanaka: Ontological Fear and Anxiety in the Theatre of Beckett, Betsuyaku, and Pinter Mary Bryden: The Mid-Century Godot: Beckett and Saroyan Linda Ben-Zvi: Beckett, McLuhan, and Television: The Medium, the Message, and the Mess Elin Diamond: Beckett and Caryl Churchill along the Moebius Strip Julie Campbell: Beckett and Paul Auster: Fathers and Sons and the Creativity of Misreading Hersh Zeifman: Staging Sam: Beckett as Dramatic Character Contributors Index

Reviews

A compendium of treats! From significant biographical revelations drawn from the writer's unpublished German diaries to astute investigations of his work viewed on its own and in relation to that of other verbal and visual artists, Beckett at 100 offers fresh insights into one of the twentieth century's most creative minds. In its breadth of vision, it's a fitting gift for the doyenne of Beckett criticism; in its wealth of new material, it's a generous gift for us all. --Louis Oppenheim, Montclair State University<br> This book succeeds in bringing Beckett's work into dialogue with a wide range of writers, thinkers, and artists. David Bradby, Royal Holloway, University of London<br> The essays...succeed in getting into the depth of Beckett's work...Recommended. --Choice<br>

<br> A compendium of treats! From significant biographical revelations drawn from the writer's unpublished German diaries to astute investigations of his work viewed on its own and in relation to that of other verbal and visual artists, Beckett at 100 offers fresh insights into one of the twentieth century's most creative minds. In its breadth of vision, it's a fitting gift for the doyenne of Beckett criticism; in its wealth of new material, it's a generous gift for us all. --Louis Oppenheim, Montclair State University<br> This book succeeds in bringing Beckett's work into dialogue with a wide range of writers, thinkers, and artists. David Bradby, Royal Holloway, University of London<br> The essays...succeed in getting into the depth of Beckett's work...Recommended. --Choice<br> A compendium of treats! From significant biographical revelations drawn from the writer's unpublished German diaries to astute investigations of his work viewed on its own and in relation to that of other verb

Author Information

Linda Ben-Zvi is Professor of Theatre Studies, Tel Aviv University and Professor emerita, English and Theatre, Colorado State University. Among her many books are Susan Glaspell: Her Life and Times (Oxford UP, 2005). She is a recipient of the George Freedley Special Jury Prize, Theatre Library Association, and was a John Stern Distinguished Professor at Colorado, Fellow at the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Lady Davis Professor at Hebrew University, and twice elected President of the International Samuel Beckett Society. Angela Moorjani is emerita professor of modern languages and linguistics (French) at the University of Maryland-UMBC. Her many studies of Samuel Beckett and the aesthetic and ethical effects of melancholy in literature and the arts include the postructural Abysmal Games in the Novels of Samuel Beckett (1982), The Aesthetics of Loss and Lessness (1992) and Beyond Fetishism (2000).

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