The Beckett Studies Reader

Download or read book The Beckett Studies Reader written by S. E. Gontarski and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For fifteen years the journal of Beckett Studies attracted (and maintained the loyalty of) superb Beckett scholars. Because of the journal's irregular publication schedule, however, back issues of the original series are virtually impossible to come by. This collection makes available for the first time in book form those essays of exceptional merit that have never been reprinted. Samuel Beckett is one of the stellar figures in post-World War II English and European literature. This collection contains fresh perspectives on such fundamental themes in his work as the idea of the "absurd," the Manichean tension of light and dark, and the Cartesian split of mind and body, self and other. Specific essays offer, for instance, an existential reading of the short mime Act Without Words, I; an analysis of the Jungian libido operating in the novel Molloy; a study of Beckett's play with language in the radio play Embers; and a critique of a central question in Beckett studies, his relationship to the philosophical tradition of solipsism. In 1992, Florida State University made a commitment to regular publication of the JBS in a new series under S. E. Gontarski's editorship. This collection offers important essays from the first phase of the journal (1976-91).