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Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://eprints.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Tracing ‘a literary fantasia’ Arnold Geulincx in the works of Samuel Beckett DAVID TUCKER DPhil University of Sussex June 2010 ii I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature………………………………………… iii University of Sussex David Tucker DPhil English Literature Tracing ‘a literary fantasia’: Arnold Geulincx in the works of Samuel Beckett Summary This thesis investigates Beckett’s interests in the seventeenth-century philosopher Arnold Geulincx, tracing these interests first back to primary sources in Beckett’s own notes and correspondence, and then forward through his oeuvre. This first full-length study of the occasionalist philosopher in Beckett’s works reveals Geulincx as closely bound, in changeable and subtle ways, to Beckett’s altering compositional methodologies and aesthetic foci. It argues that multifaceted attentiveness to the different ways in which Geulincx is alluded to or explicitly cited in different works is required if the extent of Geulincx’ importance across Beckett’s oeuvre is to be properly understood. Chapter 1 presents a lineage of correspondence dating from 1936 to 1967 in which Beckett cites or alludes to Geulincx. It introduces Geulincx’ occasionalism and Beckett’s transcriptions from his works. Chapter 2 builds upon this empirical groundwork by arguing for a proposed chronology of Murphy’s composition. This focuses Geulincx’ importance to Murphy as a frame of reference located predominantly in the novel’s latter stages. Chapter 3 investigates Geulincx’ explicit presence in manuscript drafts of Watt. It argues that this particular presence is refined out of the novel’s final stages at the same time as it is thematised. Chapter 4 focuses in on a specific paragraph that cites Geulincx in La Fin/The End and Suite. The different versions of this paragraph stage a number of textual manoeuvres in revisions and translation that are revealing about Beckett’s attitude towards Geulincx as a source. Chapter 5 traces the consequences of this aesthetic attitude through imagery derived from Geulincx in Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, this latter as a novel that seeks to enact certain of Geulincx’ ethical principles as narrative voice. The final chapter argues that there are highly refined and abstracted reappearances of Geulincx to be located in How It Is and in the television plays as a reinvigorated fascination with puppetry that also owes a debt to Beckett’s reading Heinrich von Kleist. While Geulincx has long been thought of as a fleeting presence in Beckett’s oeuvre, this full-length study finds that the philosopher’s altering and recurring presences bear closer scrutiny. Geulincx’ presences are more deeply embedded in Beckett’s work than previously noted by critics, and in this they frequently reflect Beckett’s broader changing aesthetic concerns as Beckett developed what he called his ‘series’ of works. iv Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis [Wherein you have no power, therein you should not will] Arnold Geulincx (Ethica) He had manipulated that sentence for years now, emending its terms, as joy for grief, to answer his occasions, even calling upon it to bear the strain of certain applications for which he feared it had not been intended, and still it held good through it all. He walked with it now in his mind, as though it had been there all the time he slept, holding that fragile place against dreams. Samuel Beckett (‘Yellow’) v Contents Acknowledgements viii List of abbreviations ix Notes to the text x A Chronology of Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx xi Chapter 1 – Beckett and Geulincx 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 ‘An unscratchable itch’ 6 1.3 The correspondence 10 1.4 Geulincx in the ‘Philosophy Notes’ 24 1.5 TCD MS 10971/6 27 1.6 Reviving occasionalism 33 1.7 Arnold Geulincx 35 1.8 Occasionalist metaphysics 40 1.9 Occasionalist ethics 46 Chapter 2 – Murphy 2.1 Why Murphy? 53 2.2 Murphy’s composition – quantity 55 2.3 Murphy’s composition – quality 56 2.4 Geulincx in Chapter 9 57 2.5 Murphy’s dualism and the rocking-chair 61 2.6 Murphy and Spinozan self-inspection 67 2.7 Geulincx in Chapter 11 70 2.8 The failure of ‘vicarious autology’ in the chess game 73 2.9 Occasional(ist) reviews 81 vi Chapter 3 – Watt 3.1 Watt in Beckett scholarship: ‘the series’ 85 3.2 Autology 89 3.3 Autology in Watt 91 3.4 Coming, being, going 1 97 3.5 Watt and need 102 3.6 The Ineffable 110 3.7 Mercier and Camier in Watt’s ‘series’ 112 Chapter 4 – Suite / La Fin / The End 4.1 What follows 114 4.2 The End: vision and the tutor 115 4.3 The End: pockets of philosophy 119 4.4 Suite 124 4.5 Merlin 129 Chapter 5 – Three Novels 5.1 ‘Vaguen’ 134 5.2 Molloy sets sail 135 5.3 Geulingian imagery in The Unnamable 139 5.4 The ship in Malone Dies 147 5.5 The axiom 148 5.6 The axiom in L’Innommable/The Unnamable 150 5.7 Nescio 155 5.8 ‘fundamental sounds’ – pre-established harmony 158 Chapter 6 – Late Works 6.1 ‘Who, what, where, by what means, why, in what way, when’? 163 vii 6.2 Geulincx and quotation in Comment c’est/How It Is 168 6.3 Not-Geulincx in Comment c’est/How It Is 172 6.4 Not-quotation in Comment c’est/How It Is 176 6.5 Coming, being, going 2 181 6.6 The ‘guignol world’ 182 6.7 Still 185 6.8 Kleist 189 6.9 Staging the ‘happy ones’ – Act Without Words 1 194 6.10 ‘Chamber Telly’ as ‘guignol world’ 197 6.11 Nacht und Träume 199 Conclusion 203 Bibliography 205 viii Acknowledgements I have been fortunate during the course of researching and writing this thesis to benefit from many different kinds of support from many people. Without the support of my family I would have been unable to write this thesis, and it is to them that I owe a debt of gratitude. To friends who voiced their support when I embarked upon this, I thank them for encouraging me. I am very grateful to those who have been generous with their time and have read and commented on work that has gone towards this thesis over the past few years. These include David Addyman and Laura Salisbury. Particular thanks go to my supervisors, Peter Boxall and Keston Sutherland. Peter’s patient, enthralling readings of Beckett and Keston’s brilliant, incisive criticism have been a context in which I have been very lucky to work, and will be sorry to leave. A very special thank you goes to those affiliated with the Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading. The enthusiasm and generosity of James Knowlson, Mark Nixon and John Pilling are a credit to Beckett’s legacy, to the Foundation and humanities scholarship in general, and I feel privileged to have benefited from them. I would like to thank the kind staff at the University of Sussex, Special Collections at the University of Reading, and for going beyond the call of duty both Justine Hyland at the Burns Library Boston College and Elizabeth Garver at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at Austin. Lastly, my gratefulness to Tatiana Kontou is for many things. This thesis is dedicated to her generous affection. ix List of abbreviations Works by Beckett CDW Complete Dramatic Works. London: Faber and Faber, 1990. CL The Letters of Samuel Beckett. Edited by Martha Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Company Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, Stirrings Still. London: Faber and Faber, 2009. CSP The Complete Short Prose 1929-1989. New York: Grove Press, 1995. Disjecta Disjecta. London: Calder, 1983. Dream Dream of Fair to Middling Women. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1993. TE The Expelled, The Calmative, The End, with First Love. London: Faber and Faber, 2009. HII How It Is. New York: Grove Press, 1964. Murphy Murphy. London: Faber and Faber, 2009. Proust Proust and Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit. London: Calder, 1999. TN [Three Novels] Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. London: Calder, 1994. Watt Watt. London: John Calder, 1976. Works by Geulincx Ethics Ethics: with Samuel Beckett’s notes. Edited by Han van Ruler and Anthony Uhlmann. Translated by Martin Wilson. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2006. Metaphysics Metaphysics. Translated by Martin Wilson. Wisbech: x Christoffel Press, 1999. Opera Arnoldi Geulincx Opera Philosophica, volumes I-III. Edited by Jan Pieter Nicolaas Land. Hagae Comitum: Apud Nijhoff, 1891-1893. Library archives HRHRC Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. TCD Trinity College Dublin Library, Department of Manuscripts. UoR Beckett International Foundation Archives, University of Reading Library. Notes to the text Manuscript citation is by recto/verso. Translations are mine unless otherwise stated. Quotations from pp. 311-353 of Ethics are from Beckett’s transcriptions from Ethics.
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