Beckett and death
By: edited by Steven Barfield, Philip Tew, Matthew Feldman.
Contributors: Barfield, Steven.; Tew, Philip.; Feldman, Matthew.
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 229
ISBN-13: 9780826498359
Subjects: Beckett, Samuel, -- 1906-1989 -- Criticism and interpretation; Death in literature; Mortality in literature
Description: "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."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Strange exalted death! : disinterring Beckett and death / Mark Nixon; title: Writing myself into the ground : textual existence and death in Beckett / Shane Weller; title: Orgy of false being life in common : Beckett and the politics of death / Sean Lawlor; title: O death where is thy sting? : finding words for the big ideas / Elizabeth Barry; title: Beckett, Augustine, and the rhetoric of dying / David Addyman; title: Inane space and lively place in Beckett's forties fiction / Erik Tonning; title: Beckett's unholy dying : from Malone dies to The unnamable / Peter Fifield; title: Beckett's amnesiacs, neuropsychology and temporal moribundity / Julie Campbell; title: A voice comes to one in the dark; title: imagine : radio, the listener and the dark comedy of All that fall / Paul Stewart; title: Sterile reproduction : Beckett's death of the species and fictional regeneration / Steven Matthews.