DOCSLIB.ORG

Considerations of the Influence of Jean Racine on Samuel Beckett's Plays

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Considerations of the Influence of Jean Racine on Samuel Beckett's Plays View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE 原 著 麻布大学雑誌 第 29 巻 35 − 43 Considerations of the Influence of Jean Racine on Samuel Beckett’s Plays Yasuo ISHII Laboratory of Basic Education, School of Veterinary Medicine, Azabu University, 1-17-71 Chuouku Fuchinobe, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5201, Japan Abstract: One of the characteristics of Samuel Beckett’s plays is found in the structure and monologic lines. Beckett who made efforts to describe prosaic works felt some kind of tolerance for its expression after the war. But the essence of a peculiar monologic style by a first person narrator and the chaos created by words are in- herited to his plays. Destiny with impasse in prose is converted into a play, Waiting for Godot. The symmetrical structure and monologic lines form two repetitive acts with no dramatic development. The sluggish progression without vividly dramatic effect create a peculiar world which symbolizes a situation where people are placed in the depth of despair. On this point, it can be supposed that Beckett was influenced by Racine’s plays, especially Berenice. In almost the same period in which he wrote Godot, Beckett re-read Racine’s plays and comprehended the effect of the dramas. He thought that the essence of Berenice lies in the pre-destined fate and plain dialogue between its characters, or its non-vivid development. He must have applied these effects to his own plays. Dialogue consisted of monologic words, development without vivid drama and the pre-destined fate of people; effects which proved useful for Beckett’s dramas for the present age. Happy Days reflects the undramatic drama of Berenice. Therefore, Winnie is the deformed character, consisting of Beckett’s monologic expression. Keywords: monologic lines, non-vivid development, preordained destiny, Racine, Berenice 1 Introduction: the background of writing plays narrator. As a result, the collapse of semantic logic appears in a more eminently sophisticated form in The Unnamable. Concerning Samuel Beckett’s novels, as Olga Bernal The form of internal monologue was certainly effective in suggests, it seems true that the disruption of language had expressing such motif. Disruption of language and collapse already begun in Watt.1 Persistent and morbid permutations of semantic consistency in the logic of words are originally and combinations of words are especially remarkable and generated in this work. appeared in this work. Although feelings of collapse in “…there were so many sins, the memory is so bad, the semantic and logic consistency of language are inherited words don’t come, the words fail, the breath fails, no, it’s in his following novels, there are no works more peculiarly something else, it’s an indictment, a dying voice accusing, mysterious than Watt. Yet the traditional narrative form, and accusing me,…the story of the silence that he never left, self-sufficient story could not sublimate Watt into superior that I should never have left, that I may never find again, literary work beyond itself. In Trilogy, Beckett developed that I may find again, then it will be he, it will be I, it will his style of novels; in particular, he focused on the motif of be the place, the silence, the end, the beginning again, how disruption of language, and monologic style by a first person can I say it, that’s all words, they’re all I have, and not many of them, the words fail, the voice fails, so be it….” Corresponding author: Yasuo Ishii (e-mail: [email protected]) (The Unnamable 129-131) 36 麻布大学雑誌 第 29 巻 2017 年 Synchronized feelings of collapse of words and existence Alternative absurdity, the persistent act of telling a story of the narrator “I” are evidently described in The Unnamable. with words and silence has frequently appeared in the At those times, Beckett was evidently tired of the dilemma work. Beckett began to write Texts for Nothing around 1952 of expression by prose, though the apex of writing prose in (published in 1955); that was after he had finished writing this motif appeared in the last of the Trilogy. Most critics Godot . As suggested by Webb, words in prose are no longer consider the period from the late 1940s to the early 1950s to effective in describing a story for Beckett at the time.3 But, be the most productive time for Beckett. Waiting for Godot what Beckett described in Godot was fundamentally almost (hereafter, Godot) was the result of his predicament.2 An the same as that described in his prose works. Of course, important point is that Beckett changed his expression to a the style of drama is completely different from prose, yet more visualized method of ‘stage’ and ‘drama.’ the essence is quite similar between them, that is, silence James Knowlson’s suggestion is of interest: “The to be filled by words in the depth of despair. The condition originality of Waiting for Godot lies in the concrete reality is one of helplessness, hopelessness, and meaninglessness of the silence that has somehow to be filled. So the tramp- from which nobody can escape, but instead must resignedly clowns must talk, swap hats, eat carrots, play games so as “so accept the helpless destiny which is predestined in the start hold the terrible silence at bay.” The inspiration for such a line. The first phrase of Godot symbolizes the basic idea of use of silence could have come from an instinctive response the play: “Nothing to be done.” The nucleus of the drama is to Strindberg’s or Chekhov’s theater, or from a philosophical the act of “waiting” for which the two characters, Vladimir meditation as to how Democritus’ “nothing is more real and Estragon, is the condition of “nothing to be done.” For than nothing” could be rendered in the theater.”(Knowlson them, being alive and continuing to wait, (also suggesting 343) The idea that “silence has to be filled” is associated their death) form the fundamental acts and purpose of this with the essence of dialogue between two characters on a drama. Their dialogue is helpless and seems monologic. stage. The situation created by repetitive silence and words “Vladimir: We’ll hang ourselves tomorrow. Unless is characteristic of Beckett’s literary ideas after the war. Godot comes. This situation is closely related to his motif of ‘existence Estragon: And if he comes? of human being.’ Agony between silence and words goes Vladimir: We’ll be saved. ” (Godot 94) around in circles without any solution, compelling the Their fate is certainly, or probably, death. Godot will narrator to utter something. Beckett himself pursued the never come. The play consists of two acts in which almost motif of “silence that has to be filled with words” in prose the same scenario ― waiting for Mr Godot ― is played works, especially in The Unnamable and Texts for Nothing. out. The fate of the two characters, Estragon and Vladimir, A remarkable feature of the motif appears in the voice of the is decided from the starting point of the drama. Repetitive narrator. “How many hours to go, before the next silence, condition, symmetrical structure of the acts, no vividly they are not hours, it will not be silence, how many hours dramatic development, all of these were effective for the still, before the next silence? Ah to know for sure, to know direction of the play after the war, which had progressively that this thing has no end, this thing, this thing, this farrago innovative effects on the 20th century dramaturgy. These of silence and words, of silence that is not silence and are the most characteristic elements Beckett introduced into barely murmured words. Or to know it’s life still, a form of plays. As already indicated on numerous occasions, this was life, ordained to end, as others ended and will end, till life the first trial of such an approach in the world of drama, and ends, in all its forms.” (Texts for Nothing 104) “That’s right, nobody had imagined a play in which nothing happens on a wordshit, burry me, avalanche, and let there be no more talk stage. Within a symmetrical structure, comical and hopeless of any creature, nor of a world to leave, nor of a world to conditions are repeated. In terms of the elements of repetitive reach, in order to have done, with worlds, with creatures, effect and non-vivid dramaturgy, Beckett may have referred with words, with misery, misery.” (Texts for Nothing 118) to the plays of Jean Racine.4 There is a strong probability Considerations of the Influence of Jean Racine on Samuel Beckett’s Plays 37 that Beckett was greatly influenced by Jean Racine’s plays. Connor thinks that Beckett’s repetition aims at hopeless One important suggestion made by Beckett is common to series of repetitions. There is no primary and terminal his own idea on drama; “Racine,” he maintained, “never meaning in the repetitive series. (Connor 127-8) 7 elaborates the expression in this sense, never stands by The more words characters produce in their lines, the the word in this sense, and therefore his plays are not deeper they fall into an impasse where they can not avoid ‘poetical’ i.e. undramatic, in this sense.” (Knowlson 230) their hopeless destiny in the repetitive structure. Beckett thought Racine did not adopt poetic expression, nor “Winnie: …Shall I myself not melt perhaps in the depended on poetic phrases in his drama, and regarded his end, or burn, oh I do not mean necessarily burst works as ‘undramatic.’ What Beckett aimed at was what he into flames, no, just little by little be charred to a recognized in Bram van Velde’s paintings: ‘inexpressive black cinder, all this ――visible flesh.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Samuel Beckett's Peristaltic Modernism, 1932-1958 Adam
    ‘FIRST DIRTY, THEN MAKE CLEAN’: SAMUEL BECKETT’S PERISTALTIC MODERNISM, 1932-1958 ADAM MICHAEL WINSTANLEY PhD THE UNIVERSITY OF YORK DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND RELATED LITERATURE MARCH 2013 1 ABSTRACT Drawing together a number of different recent approaches to Samuel Beckett’s studies, this thesis examines the convulsive narrative trajectories of Beckett’s prose works from Dream of Fair to Middling Women (1931-2) to The Unnamable (1958) in relation to the disorganised muscular contractions of peristalsis. Peristalsis is understood here, however, not merely as a digestive process, as the ‘propulsive movement of the gastrointestinal tract and other tubular organs’, but as the ‘coordinated waves of contraction and relaxation of the circular muscle’ (OED). Accordingly, this thesis reconciles a number of recent approaches to Beckett studies by combining textual, phenomenological and cultural concerns with a detailed account of Beckett’s own familiarity with early twentieth-century medical and psychoanalytical discourses. It examines the extent to which these discourses find a parallel in his work’s corporeal conception of the linguistic and narrative process, where the convolutions, disavowals and disjunctions that function at the level of narrative and syntax are persistently equated with medical ailments, autonomous reflexes and bodily emissions. Tracing this interest to his early work, the first chapter focuses upon the masturbatory trope of ‘dehiscence’ in Dream of Fair to Middling Women, while the second examines cardiovascular complaints in Murphy (1935-6). The third chapter considers the role that linguistic constipation plays in Watt (1941-5), while the fourth chapter focuses upon peristalsis and rumination in Molloy (1947). The penultimate chapter examines the significance of epilepsy, dilation and parturition in the ‘throes’ that dominate Malone Dies (1954-5), whereas the final chapter evaluates the significance of contamination and respiration in The Unnamable (1957-8).
    [Show full text]
  • |||GET||| Three Novels Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable 1St Edition
    THREE NOVELS MOLLOY, MALONE DIES, THE UNNAMABLE 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE Samuel Beckett | 9780802144478 | | | | | Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable About this Item: Paris, Les Editions de minuit, Like all of us, at that final moment, we will have unfinished acts. May 13, Dan rated it it was amazing. What does it MEAN? This book is bigger than me. Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in France for most of his adult life. And I am perhaps confusing several different occasions, and different times, deep down, and deep down is my dwelling, oh not deepest down somewhere between the mud and the scum. Seller Inventory mon So, I might as well add it as a read book and add a point in my Goodreads' Reading Challenge. Trivia About Molloy, Malone Di Three the Unnamable 1st edition. In his later years he suffered from cataracts and emphysema. In fact, language along, of course, with technology, but some c Language is a real son of a bitch. Thus, Moran forsakes reality, beginning to descend into the command of this "voice" which may in fact mark the true creation of Molloy. By the ending, Macmann is taken with other patients on a charity trip set up by a rich patron. I think this is his greatest achievement, and I'm a huge fan of the plays and the other w actually, i'm not reading it, but re-reading it This trilogy is really the heart of Malone Dies writing. About the Unnamable 1st edition Item: Grove Press, Sometimes, being left to one's own thoughts can be a frightening experience.
    [Show full text]
  • Bérénice, Tragédie
    BÉRÉNICE TRAGÉDIE RACINE, Jean 1671 Publié par Gwénola, Ernest et Paul Fièvre, Septembre 2015 - 1 - - 2 - BÉRÉNICE TRAGÉDIE PAR M. RACINE À PARIS Chez CLAUDE BARBIN, au Palais, sur le second perron de la Sainte-Chapelle. M. DC. LXXI. AVEC PRIVILÈGE DU ROI. - 3 - À Monseigneur COLBERT. SECRÉTAIRE D'ÉTAT, Contrôleur général des finances, Surintendant des bâtiments, grand Trésorier des Ordres du roi, Marquis de Seignelay, etc. MONSEIGNEUR, Quelque juste défiance que j'aie de moi-même et de mes ouvrages, j'ose espérer que vous ne condamnerez pas la liberté que je prends de vous dédier cette tragédie. Vous ne l'avez pas jugée tout à fait indigne de votre approbation. Mais ce qui fait son plus grand mérite auprès de vous, c'est, MONSEIGNEUR, que vous avez été témoin du bonheur qu'elle a eu de ne pas déplaire à Sa Majesté. L'on sait que les moindres choses vous deviennent considérables, pour peu qu'elles puissent servir ou à sa gloire ou à son plaisir. Et c'est ce qui fait qu'au milieu de tant d'importantes occupations, où le zèle de votre prince et le bien public vous tiennent continuellement attaché, vous ne dédaignez pas quelquefois de descendre jusqu'à nous, pour nous demander compte de notre loisir. J'aurais ici une belle occasion de m'étendre sur vos louanges, si vous me permettiez de vous louer. Et que ne dirais-je point de tant de rares qualités qui vous ont attiré l'admiration de toute la France, de cette pénétration à laquelle rien n'échappe, de cet esprit vaste qui embrasse, qui exécute tout à la fois tant de grandes choses, de cette âme que rien n'étonne, que rien ne fatigue ? Mais, MONSEIGNEUR, il faut être plus retenu à vous parler de vous-même et je craindrais de m'exposer, par un éloge importun, à vous faire repentir de l'attention favorable dont vous m'avez honoré ; il vaut mieux que je songe à la mériter par quelques nouveaux ouvrages : aussi bien c'est le plus agréable remerciement qu'on vous puisse faire.
    [Show full text]
  • Posthuman Beckett English 9169B Winter 2019 the Course Analyzes the Short Prose That Samuel Beckett Produced Prior to and After
    Posthuman Beckett English 9169B Winter 2019 The course analyzes the short prose that Samuel Beckett produced prior to and after his monumental The Unnamable (1953), a text that initiated Beckett’s deconstruction of the human subject: The Unnamable is narrated by a subject without a fully-realized body, who inhabits no identifiable space or time, who is, perhaps, dead. In his short prose Beckett continues his exploration of the idea of the posthuman subject: the subject who is beyond the category of the human (the human understood as embodied, as historically and spatially located, as possessing some degree of subjective continuity). What we find in the short prose (our analysis begins with three stories Beckett produced in 1945-6: “The Expelled,” “The Calmative,” “The End”) is Beckett’s sustained fascination with the idea of the possibility of being beyond the human: we will encounter characters who can claim to be dead (“The Calmative,” Texts for Nothing [1950-52]); who inhabit uncanny, perhaps even post-apocalyptic spaces (“All Strange Away” [1963-64], “Imagination Dead Imagine” [1965], Lessness [1969], Fizzles [1973-75]); who are unaccountably trapped in what appears to be some kind of afterlife (“The Lost Ones” [1966; 1970]); who, in fact, may even defy even the philosophical category of the posthuman (Ill Seen Ill Said [1981], Worstward Ho [1983]). And yet despite the radical dismantling of the idea or the human, as such, the being that emerges in these texts is still, perhaps even insistently, spatially, geographically, even ecologically, located. This course which finds its philosophical inspiration in the work of Martin Heidegger, especially his critical analysis of the relation between being and world, and attempts to come to some understanding of what it means for the posthuman to be in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Immensity of Confrontable Selves': the 'Split Subject'and Multiple Identities in the Experimental Novels of Christine Brooke-Rose Stephanie Jones
    ‘THE IMMENSITY OF CONFRONTABLE SELVES’: THE ‘SPLIT SUBJECT’ AND MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN THE EXPERIMENTAL NOVELS OF CHRISTINE BROOKE-ROSE STEPHANIE JONES ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY 01/03/2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my deepest thanks to my supervisor Professor Tim Woods, who has shown constant, unwavering support for the project, and read it multiple times with uncommon care. I would also like to thank Professor Peter Barry whose comments on my written work and presentations have always inspired much considered thought. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Luke Thurston for his translation of the letters between Hélène Cixous and Christine Brooke-Rose from the French. I am also greatly indebted to Dr. Will Slocombe whose bravery in teaching Brooke-Rose’s fiction should be held directly responsible for the inspiration for this project. I should also like to extend my thanks to my fellow colleagues in the English and Creative Writing department at Aberystwyth University. I am also deeply indebted to the Harry Ransom Centre of Research, the location of the Christine Brooke-Rose archive, and the John Rylands Library that holds the Carcanet archive, and all the staff that work in both institutions. Their guidance in the archives and support for the project has been deeply valued. Special thanks go to Michael Schmidt OBE for allowing me to access the Carcanet archive and Jean Michel Rabaté and Ali Smith for their encouragement throughout my studies of Christine Brooke-Rose, and their contributions to the project. For my family LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS These abbreviations will appear embedded within the text in parentheses, with page numbers.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Influence of Courtly Love in Three Plays of Jean Racine
    COURTLY LOVE' IN THREE PLAYS OF JEAN RACINE AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF COURTLY LOVE IN THREE PLAYS OF JEAN RACINE by MARIUS VINCENT SAKAS, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts McMaster University May 1973 MASTER OF ARTS (1973) McMASTER UNIVERSITY (Romance Languages) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: An Analysis of the Influence of Courtly Love in Three Plays of Jean Racine. AUTHOR: Marius Vincent Sakas, B.A. (McMaster University). SUPERVISOR: Dr. A.W. Patrick NUMBER OF PAGES: iv,127 SCOPE AND CONTENTS: An examination of the influence and role of courtly love, as portrayed and defined by Chr~tien de Troyes and Andreas Capellanus, in three plays of Jean Racine: Alexandre le Grand, Andromaque, and Here'nice. ii TAB L E o F CON TEN T S Page CHAPTER I COURTLY LOVE: ITS DEVELOPMENT AND DEFINITION 1 CHAPTER II COURTLY LOVE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AND IN RACINE 19 CHAPTER III ALEXANDRE LE GRAND 34 CHAPTER IV ANDROMAQUE 59 I / CHAPTER V BERENICE 91 CONCLUSION 120 BIBLIOGRAPHY 125 iii PREFACE During the years of my university study I have encountered the works of many great literary figures. Few, however, have moved me so deeply as the tragedies of the great French dramatist, Jean Racine. During my study of the Racinian characters I have become increasingly aware of the juxtaposition, in Racine's plays, of a tender, almost perfect love and a violent brutal passion. It is out of a desire to know Racine and his poetry better and, perhaps, to offer a possible explanation of the two types of love which I feel exist in Racine that this thesis has arisen, In my study of Racine I have found that courtly love plays a great part in his tragedies.
    [Show full text]
  • Krapp's Last Tape: a New Reading
    Spring 1990 97 Krapp's Last Tape: A New Reading Lois Gordon I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams. —Hamlet Krapp's Last Tape portrays the extreme loneliness and fragmentation of identity which a man devoid of religious, social, or biological purpose will endure. Sixty-nine-year-old Krapp, despite obvious intellectual and emotional potential, has never experienced more than a momentary sense of fulfillment or peace of mind. No religious or secular ideals, and no sexual or creative urges, have sufficiently energized or motivated him toward a sustained life goal. His parents' deaths have served only as reminders of the meaninglessness of life, and although one senses their mutual affection, Krapp has gained no sense of purpose from their world—in terms of social, cultural, or religious con­ victions, the ideals of art, or even what Karl Popper calls that most "democratic project of all," the wish to create and sustain a family. From time to time, Krapp has tried to soothe or stimulate himself with romance, creativity, and religion, but in the end, has found transient comfort in only the ritual reiteration of his recorded past and the obsessive ingestion and fondling of words and bananas. He has no wish to be young again, because he has found no mature wisdom that would better enable him to invest the vigor of youth. Unlike Oedipus at Colonnus, he will never say that Lois Gordon is professor of English and Comparative Literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey.
    [Show full text]
  • The Destabilization of the Future in Racine's Iphigénie
    Trinity University Digital Commons @ Trinity Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research Modern Languages and Literatures Department 5-1993 The Destabilization of the Future in Racine's Iphigénie Nina Ekstein Trinity University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mll_faculty Part of the Modern Languages Commons Repository Citation Ekstein, N. (1993). The destabilization of the future in Racine's Iphigénie. French Review, 66(6), 919-931. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at Digital Commons @ Trinity. It has been accepted for inclusion in Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Trinity. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE FRENCH REVIEW, Vol. 66, No. 6, May 1993 Printed in U.S.A. The Destabilization of the Future in Racine's lphigenie by Nina Ekstein THE ACTION of Racine's lphigenie is only a prelude, a pretext, to a much greater future event. The Trojan War looms large before the entire dra­ matic universe, drawing the characters inexorably forward. 1The force of the future in this play has long been evident: Georges Poulet discussed it in relation to the weight of the past in Andromaque: "(o]uvrant ou fermant un recit, le moment de !'action perd done presque entierement sa valeur pro­ pre, sa qualite de seul moment 'present.' ... Sa 'realite' n'est pas assez riche en soi pour triompher d'un passe ou d'un futur. Le moment racinien se trouve ainsi devenir l'esclave d'une duree anterieure ou posterieure" (153- 54).
    [Show full text]
  • The Beckettian Mimesis of Absence
    Colby Quarterly Volume 39 Issue 2 June Article 3 June 2003 The Beckettian Mimesis of Absence Eric P. Levy Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq Recommended Citation Colby Quarterly, Volume 39, no.2, June 2003, p. 137-150 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Quarterly by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Colby. Levy: The Beckettian Mimesis of Absence The Beckettian Mimesis ofAbsence By ERIC P. LEVY ECKETTIAN MIMESIS insists on the primacy of perspective: "seen from a Bcertain angle" (The Lost Ones 13, 16; Malone Dies 245). But it is a per­ spective that paradoxically claims exclusive validity ("from this point of view but there is no other" ["Imagination Dead Imagine" 65]), while acknowledg­ ing its own limitation and fallibility: "for the visibility, unless it be the state of my eyesight, only permits me to see what is close beside me" (The Unnamable 297).1 Moreover, it is a perspective that, through recognizing its futility ("To be on the watch and never sight ..." (The Unnamable 368), repu­ diates its own function: "Perhaps it would be better to be blind ..." (The Unnamable 372-73); "I don't believe in the eye either, there's nothing to see, nothing to see with ..." (The Unnamable 375). In this context, the ultimate object seen from the Beckettian perspective is the reduction of sight to redun­ dant reflex with neither stimulus nor registration: "Then the eyes suddenly start afresh as famished as the unthinkable first day until for no clear reason they as suddenly close again or the head falls" (The Lost Ones 32).
    [Show full text]
  • Samuel Beckett's Unbated "Breath"
    Abated Drama: Samuel Beckett's Unbated "Breath" WILLIAM HUTCHINGS ZVT THE BEGINNING OF THE THIRD ACT of Measure for Meas• ure, as Claudio languishes in prison, sentenced to death for the crime of fornication, the Duke (disguised as a friar) counsels the condemned man to "reason thus with life" : a breath thou art, Servile to all the skyey influences That do this habitation, where thou keep'st, Hourly afflict[.] (III.i.8-11) Of all of Shakespeare's comedies, Measure for Measure is the most congruent with the works of Samuel Beckett; its bitter laughter, its depiction of pitiful humanity, and its preoccupation with death resonate throughout the Irishman's works. Whatever else Beckett's characters lack — limbs, mobility, sight, memory, or even life itself—They "are" breath; that is, their existence is confirmed by (and their subsistence consists of) breath shaped into words. Cogito, aut loquor, ergo spiro, ergo sum is, for all of them, the ultimate Cartesian reality : I think, or at least I speak, therefore I breathe, therefore I am. Even the Unnamable, a self- described "wordless thing in an empty space,"1 must nevertheless "say words, as long as there are any" (p. 414), albeit "to the self- accompaniment of a tongue [and, presumably, a breath] that is not mine" (p. 306) ; the narrator of How It Is gasps and pants his way through both his narrative and the mud through which he crawls. They, like Beckett's other characters, remain "servile to all the skyey influences" which afflict them for reasons that they fail to understand: such is the force that (whether or not it 86 WILLIAM HUTGHINGS drives the flower) rings the bell in Happy Days and controls the light in Play.
    [Show full text]
  • Select Bibliography
    Select Bibliography COLLECTED WORKS CEuvres, ed. P. Mesnard, 8 vols and 2 albums (Hachette, 1865-73, etc.) ('Les Grands Ecrivains de la France'). Theatre complet, ed. G. True, 4 vols (Societe des Belles-lettres, 1929-30) ('Les Textes fran<;:ais'). Original spelling and punctuation. CEuvres completes, ed. R. Picard, 2 vols (Galhmard, 1950), ('Bibliotheque de la Pleiade'). The latest complete and scholarly edition. Theatre complet, ed. M. Rat (Garnier, 196o). CEuvres completes, ed. P. Clarac (Seuil and Macmillan Co. of New York, 1962) ('L'Integrale'). No variants given. SINGLE PLAYS (a) English editions; introduction and commentary in English except where stated. Britannicus, ed. P. Butler (Cambridge U.P., 1967). Extensive biblio- graphy. --ed. W. H. Barber (Macmillan and StMartin's P., 1967). Berenice, ed. W. S. Maguinness (Manchester U.P., 1929, 1956). - ed. C. L. Walton (Oxford U.P., 1965). Bajazet, ed. C. Girdlestone (Blackwell, 1955). Entirely in French. Mithridate, ed. G. Rudler (Blackwell, 1943). Entirely in French. Phedre, ed. R. C. Knight (Manchester U.P., 1943, 1955). Athalie, ed. P. France (Oxford U.P., 1966). (b) Collection 'Mises en Scene' (Editions du Seuil). Line-by-line commentaries by producers of noteworthy Paris productions, illustra­ ted (but without scholarly authority). Bajazet, mise en scene et commentaires de X. de Courville (1947). Phedre, mise en scene et commentaircs de J.-L. Barrault (1946, 1959). Athalie, mise en scene et commentaires de G. le Roy (1952). 232 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS In blank verse unless otherwise stated. (Racine's poetic style being what it is, no translation must be expected to convey the full flavour.) The Dramatic Works of].
    [Show full text]
  • Views of 1 If E Str U~Gl Ing for Expression
    TYPES OF HEROINES IN THID ~RENCH ROMANTIC DRAMA: A COMPARISON WITH THE H~ROINES OF RACINE AND CORNEILLE • .A Thesis Presented for the Degree of Master of Arts BY Della Roggers Maidox, B. A. -- - . - - ... - - -- --.. - - ....... ·- ~ ;.: ~ ;~;~;-~~~.~-:~ - - - - - - - - -- - - - .. ... .. - THE OHIO-STATE UNIVERSITY -- 19 :20 BIBLIOGRAPHY I. French Sources Histoire da la Langue et ]e la Litterature Fran9aise Vols. IV, V, and VII Petit de Julleville. Drama Ancien, Drame Moderne Emile Faguet. Les 3rands Maitres du XVII~ Siecle, Vol V, IDmile Faguet. Histoire de la Litterature Fran9aise Brunetiere. Le Mouvement Litt~raire ju XIX! Sihcle t'ellissier. Le Rialisme iu Ro~a~ti3me Pellissier. Histoire ie la Litterature Fran9aise Abr Y..1 A11 Uc et Crou z;et Les Epoques iu Theatre Fran9ais• Bruneti~re~ Les Jranis Eorivains 'ran9ais~~Raoine .Justave Larroumet. " II " " Boilea11 Lanson. Histoire iu Romantisme Th6o~hile Gautier. ld(es et Doctrines Litteraires du XrII' Siecle Vial et Denise. n " II II " XIX ' ti Vial et Denise. Histoire de la Litt~rature Fran9aise, Vols.II,III " " " " " Lanson. Portraits Litteraires, Vol I Sainte-Beuve. CauserEes de Lunii Sainte-Beuve. De La Poesie Dramatique, Belles Lettres, Vol. VII Diderot. L'Art Poetique Boi l'eau. Racine et Victor Hugo P. Stapfer. La Poetique de Racine Robert. Les Granis IDcrivains Fran9ais--Alex. Dumas,P~re Parigot. II. English Sources Rousseau and Romanticism Irving Babbitt. Literature of the French Renaissance, Vols. I and II Tilley. Annals of the· French Stage, Vols. II ani III Hawkins. The Romantic Revolt Vaughan. The Romantic Triumph Omond. Studies in Hugo's Dramatic Characters Bruner. Main Currents of Nineteenth Century Literature, Vol.III Brandes~ History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century Beers.
    [Show full text]