After the final no
Subtitle: Samuel Beckett's trilogy
By: Thomas J. Cousineau.
Publisher: University of Delaware Press; Associated University Presses
Published: 1999
Place of publication: Newark; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 164
Subjects: Beckett, Samuel, 1906- -- Fictional works.; Beckett, Samuel, 1906-; Beckett, Samuel, 1906-; Beckett, Samuel, 1906-
Description: This study, while surveying all of Samuel Beckett's major fiction, focuses on the work that he regarded as his masterpiece: the trilogy of novels Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. It analyzes the ways in which Beckett, as he moves from one novel to the next, demystifies each of the principal idols to which human beings have looked for protection and guidance in the successive phases of their history.

In part one of Molloy this role is assumed by the figure of the mother and the various women who minister to Molloy's needs in the course of his journey. In part two, these maternal figures are replaced by Youdi and other male authority figures, including Father Ambrose, who embody the rule of paternal law.

In Malone Dies, we enter the period of modern individualism, in which, freed from dependence upon the parental figures that had dominated Molloy, Malone ("man alone") looks vainly to himself for the guidance that they had formerly provided.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 152-162) and index.