Freedom and Negativity in the Works of Samuel Beckett and Theodor Adorno
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FREEDOM AND NEGATIVITY IN THE WORKS OF SAMUEL BECKETT AND THEODOR ADORNO Natalie Leeder Royal Holloway, University of London PhD Thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ........................................................................... 3 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...................................................................................................... 5 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER ONE: FREEDOM AND ITS LIMITS ...................................................................... 44 CHAPTER TWO: THE ILLUSION OF FREEDOM AND THE FREEDOM OF ILLUSION ................ 71 CHAPTER THREE: THE SCARS OF EVIL .......................................................................... 105 CHAPTER FOUR: VIRTUAL FREEDOM ............................................................................ 144 CHAPTER FIVE: METAPHYSICS ..................................................................................... 190 EPILOGUE .................................................................................................................... 227 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 231 2 DECLARATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY I hereby certify that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Natalie Leeder 3 ABSTRACT This thesis argues that Beckett’s corpus is concerned with the fragile possibility of freedom as articulated by Adorno. As Chapter 1 demonstrates, this concern begins with an overt thematisation of freedom in Murphy and Eleutheria that ultimately leads to an impasse. In line with Adorno’s claim that ‘[f]reedom can be defined in negation only’, Chapters 2 to 5 proceed to illuminate the deeply negative expressions of freedom that pervade Beckett’s post-war corpus. Chapter 2 explores the question of aesthetic freedom⎯a key preoccupation of Adorno’s⎯in relation to Beckett’s Novellas: if art is wholly determined by its socio- political context then it makes no sense to talk about freedom in relation to Beckett’s work. This chapter considers the paradox whereby art simultaneously embodies the illusion of freedom and the freedom of illusion. Chapter 3 traces the connection between freedom and evil in The Lost Ones and Endgame, analysing the systematic network of social unfreedom revealed in the cylindrical world of the former, and through the oppressive weight of history in the latter. Recognizing the significance of the philosopher’s critique of the Culture Industry, Chapter 4 takes some of Adorno’s more nuanced texts as the basis for an exploration of Beckett’s late media plays. It argues that the aesthetic incorporation of technology heralds liberatory possibilities in its radical reimagining of the role of technology as a mediator between subject and world. Finally, Chapter 5 considers the significance of Adorno’s reconceptualisation of metaphysics in Beckett’s late short prose, arguing that, while All Strange Away and Imagination Dead Imagine manifest the horror of absolute immanence, Company registers the transcending impulse of thought to free itself from the existing world. So, in Beckett’s resolutely negative art as a whole, a provisional and ephemeral possibility of freedom is kept alive by his abstaining from any affirmation of the existent. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Andrew Gibson, without whose support and absolute faith I would not have survived my doctoral study. His inspirational supervision has developed my mind more than I can say. To Andrew Bowie, too, I owe a great debt, not least for responding to my queries, deep and superficial, at all hours of the day and night⎯and always with great humour, kindness and thought. My Mum, Dad and brothers, Joseph and Simeon, have provided unending support, for which I cannot thank them enough. Love and thanks also to my Nanny, eternally proud of her granddaughter, and my Grandad, who would have loved to have seen this thesis. I will always be grateful to David Addyman for introducing me to Beckett during my Undergraduate. Rupert Gough and the Choir of Royal Holloway deserve a special mention for accommodating my study and providing me with a wonderful space of release and fulfilment. Grateful acknowledgement is due to Royal Holloway for funding my research. I have, furthermore, been constantly overwhelmed throughout my thesis at the kindness of strangers, too innumerable to list, who have helped to smooth the path. Finally, my heartfelt thanks to Sam Hall, who has been with me every step of the way. To him I dedicate this thesis. 5 ABBREVIATIONS SAMUEL BECKETT A number of Beckett’s texts are most accessible within collected works. For ease of reference, I allude to each individual text by its full name and include below the collection’s full citation and relevant page numbers. The Complete Dramatic Works (London: Faber and Faber, 2006) ⎯ Waiting for Godot, pp. 7–88 ⎯ Endgame, pp. 89–134 ⎯ Happy Days, pp. 135–68 ⎯ All That Fall, pp. 169–200 ⎯ Krapp’s Last Tape, pp. 213–24 ⎯ Rough for Theatre II, pp. 235–50 ⎯ Embers, pp. 251–64 ⎯ Rough for Radio I, pp. 265–72 ⎯ Rough for Radio II, pp. 273–84 ⎯ Words and Music, pp. 285–94 ⎯ Cascando, pp. 295–304 ⎯ Film, pp. 321–34 ⎯ Eh Joe, pp. 359–68 ⎯ Ghost Trio, pp. 405–14 ⎯ ….but the clouds…, pp. 415–22 ⎯ Catastrophe, pp. 455–62 ⎯ Nacht und Träume, pp. 463–66 The Complete Short Prose, 1929–1989, ed. by S. E. Gontarski (New York: Grove Press, 1995) ⎯ First Love, pp. 25–45 ⎯ The Expelled, pp. 46–60 ⎯ The Calmative, pp. 61–77 ⎯ The End, pp. 78–99 ⎯ All Strange Away, pp. 169–81 ⎯ Imagination Dead Imagine, pp. 182–5 ⎯ Enough, pp. 186–92 ⎯ The Lost Ones, pp. 202–23 NoHow On: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho, ed. by S. E. Gontarski (New York: Grove Press, 1996) ⎯ Company, pp. 1–46 ⎯ Ill Seen Ill Said, pp. 47–86 ⎯ Worstward Ho, pp. 87–116 6 Eleutheria, trans. by Barbara Wright (London: Faber and Faber, 1996) How It Is (London: Calder & Boyars, 1964; repr. 1972) Molloy, ed. by Shane Weller (London: Faber and Faber, 2009) Malone Dies, ed. by Peter Boxall (London: Faber and Faber, 2010) Murphy, ed. by J. C. C. Mays (London: Faber and Faber, 2009) The Unnamable, ed. by Steven Connor (London: Faber and Faber, 2010) THEODOR W. ADORNO AR The Adorno Reader, ed. by Brian O’Connor (Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) AT Aesthetic Theory, ed. by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Robert Hullot-Kentor (London: Continuum, 1997; repr. 2012) CM Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, trans. by Henry W. Pickford (New York and Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2005) CI The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture, ed. by J. M. Bernstein (London: Routledge, 1991; repr. 2003) HF History and Freedom: Lectures 1964–1965, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Rodney Livingstone (Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2008) IS Introduction to Sociology, ed. by Christoph Gödde, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000) KCPR Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2001) LND Lectures on Negative Dialectics: Fragments of a lecture course 1965/1966, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Rodney Livingstone (Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity, 2008) MCP Metaphysics: Concepts and Problems, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000) MM Minima Moralia: Reflections From Damaged Life, trans. by E. F. N. Jephcott (London and New York: Verso, 2005) ND Negative Dialectics, trans. by E. B. Ashton (New York and London: Continuum, 2007) 7 NL1 Notes to Literature Volume One, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Shierry Weber Nicholsen, 2 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), I NL2 Notes to Literature Volume Two, ed. by Rolf Tiedemann, trans. by Shierry Weber Nicholsen, 2 vols (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992), II P Prisms, trans. by Samuel M. Weber (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981) PMP Problems of Moral Philosophy, ed. by Thomas Schröder, trans. by Rodney Livingstone (Cambridge and Oxford: Polity, 2000) TMR Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction: Notes, a Draft and Two Schemata, ed. by Henri Lonitz, trans. by Wieland Honban (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2006) MAX HORKHEIMER AND THEODOR W. ADORNO DE Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments, ed. by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002) IMMANUEL KANT R ‘Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason’, trans. by George di Giovanni, in Religion and Rational Theology, trans. and ed. by Allen W. Wood and George di Giovanni (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 39–216 CPR Critique of Pure Reason, trans. and ed. by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) CPrR Critique of Practical Reason, in Practical Philosophy, trans. and ed. by Mary Gregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 133–272 GMM Groundwork of The Metaphysics of Morals, in Practical Philosophy, trans. and ed. by Mary Gregor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 37–108 8 INTRODUCTION Can it be we are not free? It might be worth looking into. ⎯ Molloy, p. 32 This thesis takes as its basis Theodor