Beckett and Death

by Steven Barfield (Editor), Matthew Feldman (Editor), Philip Tew (Editor)

Overview

Death is indisputably central to Beckett's writing and reception.  This collection of research considers a number of Beckett's poems, novels, plays and short stories through considerations of mortality and death. 
Chapters explore the theme of deathliness in relation to Beckett's work as a whole, through three main approaches.  The first of these situates Beckett's thinking about death in his own writing and reading processes, particularly with respect to manuscript drafts and letters. The second on the death of the subject in Beckett links dominant 'poststructural' readings of Beckett's writing to the textual challenge exemplified by the The Unnamable.
A final approach explores psychology and death, with emphasis on deathly states like catatonia and Cotard's Syndrome that recur in Beckett's work.  Beckett and Death offers a range of cutting-edge approaches to the trope of mortality, and a unique insight into the relationship of this theme to all aspects of Beckett's literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826498359
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/26/2009
Series:	Continuum Literary Studies
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Matthew Feldman is Emeritus Professor in the Modern History of Ideas, Professional Fellow at the University of York, UK.

Philip Tew is Professor of English (Post-1900 Literature) at Brunel University, UK, Director of the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing and Director of the UK Network for Modern Fiction Studies. His many publications as both author and editor include Reading Zadie Smith: The First Decade and Beyond (Bloomsbury, 2013) and (co-edited with Emily Horton and Leigh Wilson) The 1980s: A Decade of Modern British Fiction (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Table of Contents

Introduction: ‘Strange exalted death!'- Disinterring Beckett and Death - Matthew Feldman, University of Northampton, UK 1. ‘Writing myself into the ground': Textual Existence and Death in Beckett - Mark Nixon, University of Reading, UK Beckett, Derrida and the Death of the Subject - Steven Matthews, Oxford Brookes University, UK 2. ‘Orgy of false being life in common': Beckett and the Politics of Death - Shane Weller, University of Kent, UK 3. ‘O Death where is thy sting?' Finding words for the big ideas - Sean Lawlor, University of Reading, UK 4. Beckett, Augustine, and the Rhetoric of Dying - Elizabeth Barry, University of Warwick, UK 5. Inane Space and Lively Place in Beckett's Forties Fiction - David Addyman 6. Beckett's Unholy Dying: From Malone Dies to The Unnameable - Erik Tonning, University of Oxford, UK 7. Beckett's Amnesiacs, Neuropsychology and Temporal Moribundity, Peter Fifield, University of York, UK 8. ‘A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine': Radio, the Listener and the Dark Comedy of All That Fall - Julie Campbell, University of Southhampton, UK 9. Sterile Reproduction: Beckett's Death of the Species and Fictional Regeneration - Paul Stewart, Intercollege, Cyprus 10. Beckett's Late Style - Steven Matthews, Oxford Brookes University, UK Afterword: Samuel Beckett's Cemeteries - Chris Ackerley, University of Otago, NZ Index