Title: The ideal real : Beckett's fiction and imagination /
Authors: Davies, Paul, 1962-
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press ; Associated University Presses,
Year: 1994
Subjects: Beckett, Samuel, Fictional works.; Imagination.; Experimental fiction History and criticism.
Abstract: The conclusions reached in The Ideal Real are not the same as those reached by most commentary on Beckett's works. Most Beckett criticism seeks falsely to over-simplify or align Beckett's point of view with existentialism, the absurd, or the pessimistic nihilism underlying much postmodern thought. Beckett, though one of the century's leading intellects, was also an intuitive who realized the Western empirical mind was an out-dated program that had long ceased to be of any help in understanding the human situation. The "disintegration" of mind and body felt by his characters reflects the disastrous effect of the continued imposition of that "reason-ridden" consciousness. At the same time it opens the door to a new possibility.
Contents: Introduction: What Is Man? The Search for Reality -- pt. 1. Getting a Grip, Blundering On (1935-1945). 1. Trusty Things? (More Pricks Than Kicks, Murphy, Nouvelles). 2. Laughing at the Referent (Watt, Mercier and Camier) -- pt. 2. Lying and Longing (1945-1965). 3. Lies in the Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable). 4. The You That Is Not You (How It Is) -- pt. 3. A Fancy Prison (1966-1976). 5. Fancy and Imagination in the Rotunda (All Strange Away). 6. Exits for Amateurs of Myth (Imagination Dead Imagine, The Lost Ones, Lessness, For to End Yet Again) -- pt. 4. Universal Visions (1977-1989). 7. Imagination Living (From an Abandoned Work, Enough, Still, Sounds, Still 3, Old Earth). 8. The Imagination of Youth (Company). 9. Cleansing the Doors of Perception (Ill Seen Ill Said). 10. A Pox on Void (Worstward Ho). 11. Disembodying Western Tradition (Stirrings Still) -- Appendix: Beckett's Blake Riddle.