Samuel Beckett: Age, Impairment, and the Drama of Confinement
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2015 Samuel Beckett: Age, Impairment, and the Drama of Confinement Victoria Helen Swanson University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Swanson, Victoria Helen, "Samuel Beckett: Age, Impairment, and the Drama of Confinement. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2015. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3521 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Victoria Helen Swanson entitled "Samuel Beckett: Age, Impairment, and the Drama of Confinement." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in English. Stanton B. Garner Jr., Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Allen Dunn, Les Essif, Mary Papke Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Samuel Beckett: Age, Impairment, and the Drama of Confinement A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Victoria Helen Swanson August 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Victoria Helen Swanson All rights reserved. ii DEDICATION For Sierra, whom I have adored at every age. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many for the development and completion of this project. During my time as a doctoral student, I have been most fortunate to work with many outstanding teachers and a core group of mentors. I wish to thank my major professor, Stanton B. Garner, Jr. for working with me early on in my graduate education and for graciously accepting me as his student when I entered into the doctoral program. Throughout my time here at Knoxville Stan’s courses, his own published work, and his approaches to textual study have greatly influenced my research interests. In addition, by extending a Research Assistantship that allowed me to work under his guidance on the second edition of The Norton Anthology of Drama, Stan provided me with valuable editorial training and an opportunity to further my professional development. Most of all, his kindred scholarly interests in drama and in the work of Samuel Beckett have kept me dedicated to my work here. I could not have accomplished this project without Stan’s many years of time, support, guidance, encouragement, and his tireless readings of my work. The members of my dissertation committee have also been greatly influential during my time at Tennessee. I extend my deep appreciation to Allen Dunn, who chaired my master’s thesis and has generously continued to work with me throughout my graduate career. I had the honor of working with Dr. Dunn through a Research Assistantship at Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal during the second year of my graduate studies. I did not realize it at the time but that experience led me into unanticipated directions and foregrounded the interdisciplinary scope of my later work. Dr. Dunn has become one of my chief advisors through the years and I am most grateful for his continued mentorship. Likewise, I wish to express my gratitude Mary Papke, who has continually offered her time, mentorship, and exacting readings across my years in both the master’s and the doctoral programs. Dr. Papke’s courses led to me to consider embodiment and materiality in ways that continue to influence my work. I have sought her advice and suggestions repeatedly through the years. She’s braved multiple committees on my behalf, helped me develop my reading lists, and been a sounding board whenever I have requested her ear. Thank you to Les Essif, for coming to my project with an unwavering enthusiasm and kind support. In addition to being well-versed in the works of Samuel Beckett, early in the development of this dissertation project Les took the generous measure of introducing my interest in age studies to professor Patrice Pavis, School of the Arts, University of Kent, whose work in theater and age studies I greatly admire. In turn, professor Pavis furnished Les with some of his recent work to pass on to me. As such, I also wish to thank professor Pavis for his kind support. I owe immeasurable appreciation to The University of Tennessee Humanities Center for extending a dissertation year fellowship to me. The fellowship was most instrumental in giving me the luxury of time and space while working on this project. In addition, I wish to thank some key contributors at The Humanities Center for making my iv year there productive and memorable. First, I thank Dr. Thomas Heffernan. While he leads The Humanities Center as its Director, Dr. Heffernan also chairs a series of seminars for fellows throughout the academic year. These talks have been illuminating and added much to my work during my year at The Humanities Center. I wish to thank Joan Murray for her steadfast administrative support during my time at The Center. Joan simply makes everything easier for fellows at The Humanities Center and I truly appreciate her assistance throughout the year. Thank you to the faculty and administrators in the Department of English, University of Tennessee, for granting me years of generous support and myriad opportunities to grow and develop as a scholar. I would be remiss if I did not extend deep gratitude to the department’s administrative support staff—Leanne Hinkle, Judith Welch, Donna Bodenheimer, Pamela Whaley, Teresa Whaley, and Kayla Allen—thanks to each one of you for all of your help through the years and continually easing the way during my time in the graduate program. I wish to thank Dr. Keith P. Taylor for his generous support of drama study at the University of Tennessee. Keith’s philanthropy is most kind and his Keith P. Taylor Grant allowed me to study and see drama in Stratford and London in the summer of 2012. I am most grateful to Keith for his support. There are many scholars and colleagues to whom I am eternally grateful. I am indebted to Elinor Fuchs, Professor Emerita of Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale School of Drama, for her encouragement of my interest in age studies and for her detailed readings of work leading up to this project. In addition, Dr. Fuchs introduced me to Valerie Lipscomb, whose work on age studies has proven most valuable to me and who continues to be a mentor, colleague, and friend. I wish to thank Valerie for her continued support and for reassuring me that this work is important. Melissa Loucks has my deepest appreciation for her close readings of my work across the better part of a decade and for her ceaseless support as my peer editing partner and close friend. I am sure I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you, Mel. My deep appreciation to Michael Coffey, Plant Engineer DCS/Performance Engineering, PSEG Mercer Station for serving as a professional consultant during my writing of this dissertation’s second chapter and for becoming a friend, confidant, and sounding board while I completed this project. I would not have entered into graduate work were it not for the influence of two mentors from my undergraduate institution who have now become colleagues and friends. I thank Dr.Taylor Hagood, Florida Atlantic University, Research Ambassador for the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst/German Academic Exchange Service, for seeing something in me early on, encouraging me to continue my studies toward graduate work, and for his invaluable advice and kind support in the years since. Thanks also to v Dr. Mary Faraci, Florida Atlantic University, for her support and generosity during my time at FAU and into my graduate career. I owe a whole different dimension of gratitude to my family. My parents, Salvatore and Joan Serio, have always known the right words to say to encourage my spirit and their support throughout my years in graduate school is immeasurable. Thank you mom and dad—for everything. My daughter, Sierra Swanson, deserves recognition for being a constant source of energy, joy, and boundless patience during my toughest writing seasons and despite tight schedules. Thank you for all of your support, Sierra. My siblings have been great cheerleaders in life and as I worked toward completing this project. As such, I thank Susan Snyder, Donna Lapi, and Michael Serio for all of their help through the years. My extended family is always present with optimism, a laugh, and kind words—thank you all for being in my life. Sometimes we lose people along the way. I wish to express how deeply moved I was while I was in the late stages of writing this project and my father’s elderly cousin, Dr. Annette D. Forti, Professor Emeritus of Economics, SUNY Old Westbury, and founder of its Business degree placed a telephone call to me while she was hospitalized. Annette was bedridden in the final throes of terminal cancer. She started her career in academe at a time when women did not take degrees in Economics, so Annette understood working toward difficult goals and the level of commitment necessary to complete a doctorate. During this call, which was to be our last conversation, she hammered out as much scholarly advice to me as she could in the short period that she could muster enough energy to speak.