“One Glimpse and Vanished”: the Limits of Representation in Samuel Beckett's Criticism and Fiction Tim Lawrence Phd Univ
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“One glimpse and vanished”: The Limits of Representation in Samuel Beckett’s Criticism and Fiction Tim Lawrence PhD University of York English and Related Literature September 2015 Abstract This thesis examines how philosophical influence shaped the representation of vision in Beckett’s critical writing and fiction. In order to undertake this analysis, I draw on trends within Beckett studies, especially those focused on the relationship between Beckett and phenomenology, while also seeking to draw on textual and rhetorical approaches from outside Beckett studies. Beckett’s writing and thinking on visual art are examined in detail, and it is argued that Beckett’s essays were crucial to the development of his literary aesthetic. This thesis examines how Beckett’s use of the figural suggests an implicit philosophical perspective, grounded in concerns about the status and nature of representation. It details these philosophical traces in Beckett’s writing in relation to theories of art, perception and consciousness with which Beckett is known to have engaged. The first chapter focuses on the Kantian philosophical tradition and its manifestations in Beckett’s essay Proust (1931) and his novel Murphy (1938), before considering their relationship to Beckett’s novel Watt (1945) and the essays written in the immediate post-war period, such as “Peintres de l’empêchement” (1948). The second chapter considers affinities between these works and Surrealism, focusing on the relationship between the visual and philosophical in Surrealism. Chapter three considers the role of other reflections on the visual and figural, including Wassily Kandinsky’s writing on art, while it documents Beckett’s work alongside the art critic Georges Duthuit on the review Transition (1948-50). Drawing on these discourses, the theme of the dissolving figure in Watt and Beckett’s novellas, such as Premier amour (1946), is considered in relation to interests in visualising the limits of representation. Chapter four considers the role played by the limit and limit-states in Beckett’s later prose, moving from L’Innommable (1953) to the short “residua” gathered in the collections Têtes-mortes and Foirades, by way of a dialogue between Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophies. I end by suggesting that a thematic continuity grounded in the interplay between representation, perception and consciousness underpins the changes in the role played by the visual and figural as Beckett’s prose style developed. 2 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................. 5 Author’s Declaration .............................................................................................................................. 6 Note on the presentation of text .......................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 8 Chapter One: Representation and resistance: Beckett as reader and critic ................................ 30 Figural evocations ............................................................................................................................. 31 Kant, Schopenhauer and Beckett’s philosophical influences ..................................................... 34 Kant, Cassirer and interwar politics ............................................................................................... 44 Schopenhauer and the Proustian equation ................................................................................... 51 Beckett and the “art d’incarcération” ............................................................................................ 60 A(p)perception and the eye ............................................................................................................. 67 Watt’s pots and Kantian objects ..................................................................................................... 72 Vision and unknowing ..................................................................................................................... 78 Chapter Two: Beckett’s visual aesthetic and Surrealist influences .............................................. 87 “these long shifting thresholds”: figuring disappearance ........................................................... 88 The Surrealist situation and Murphy in translation ....................................................................... 95 André Breton and the Surrealist Image ....................................................................................... 101 This Quarter and Beckett’s poetic adaptations ............................................................................. 110 Surrealist revisions and Sartrean objects ..................................................................................... 119 Chapter Three: Periodical culture and Beckett’s revisions of the visual .................................. 134 Beckett in Transition: revising and reflecting on Surrealism ...................................................... 134 Beckett and Kandinsky: critical and creative abstraction.......................................................... 154 Formal reflections of Kandinsky in Watt and beyond .............................................................. 163 Kandinsky’s concretions: philosophy and form......................................................................... 172 Figure and ground, vision and voice in Premier amour ............................................................... 177 Chapter Four: “This running against the walls of our cage”: Beckett at the boundary ......... 183 Figural connections: L’Innommable, Mercier et Camier and Foirades ............................................ 185 The fragment between criticism and fiction ............................................................................... 196 Beckett, Bataille and the ends of limitation ................................................................................ 199 Wittgenstein’s aesthetics and the late Beckettian limit .............................................................. 201 The impossible view: the limits of thought in “Imagination Dead Imagine” ....................... 212 Figuring the unfigurable: Blanchot, Bataille and rhetorical delineations of the limit ........... 217 3 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 228 Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................................... 232 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................... 234 4 Acknowledgments There are too many people to thank, but here’s trying. At university, Andy, Cat, James, Lucy, Nick, Rebekah, Seb and Stef have all been a tremendous lifeline throughout. I am indebted to my parents, family and friends beyond – Paul, Anna, Craig, Chris and Jacqui – but especially Robyn, who has stayed true. I am also thankful to Adam Winstanley, who offered kind help in the archives as well as feedback on the thesis. My thesis advisor, Professor Peter Lamarque, showed great attention and I am grateful for his kindness and thoroughness in supervision meetings. Finally, my supervisor Dr Emilie Morin has shown nothing less than Virgilian courage and patience while guiding me on my poor pilgrimage, for which I am grateful beyond words. 5 Author’s Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work, apart from those instances in which I quote or draw upon the work of others, where acknowledgement is clearly given through references within the text. Part of chapter three will be published in Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd’hui 27, “‘Beginning of the murmur’: Archival Pre-texts and Other Sources,” edited by Mark Nixon and Conor Carville (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2015). No other work in this thesis has been published and no portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification at this or any other institution of learning. 6 Note on the presentation of text Where relevant, for French-language sources, both the original text and a translation are provided. The original or translated passage is usually given in parentheses, following the reference for the first citation. Longer citations from an original source are presented in a footnote, except those for works by Beckett, where the original and the translated passage are placed alongside one another in the body of the thesis. Where my own translation is given, this immediately follows the reference for the original citation and, to avoid confusion, is placed [in square brackets]. Words or philosophical terms without a single, specific source are isolated in ‘single quotation marks’ rather than the “double quotation marks” used for citations. Individual foreign-language