Samuel Beckett: Afterlives

Michaelmas term 2019

Dr Julie Bates

Description This module explores Beckett’s creative legacy and continuing relevance for a number of contemporary writers and artists whose work further explores the thematic, formal or conceptual preoccupations of Beckett’s writing. The contemporary figures under study are the writers Eimear McBride, Brian Dillon, Joanna Walsh and Niamh Campbell, and the artist Brian O’Doherty. These figures all have a connection (and often a complex relationship) with Ireland. We will meet twice a week, first for lectures, and then for more participatory seminars organized around presentations, close readings and group discussions. Early on in the module, we will visit Trinity’s Manuscripts Library to consult Beckett’s manuscripts.

Week-by-week outline - Week 1 - Introduction - Week 2 - Group visit to Beckett’s manuscripts - Week 3 - Beckett: The Last Modernist? Assessment of his legacy - Week 4 - Beckett, his mother, lovers and female collaborators: Molloy, All That Fall, Happy Days, Play, Not I - Week 5 - Eimear McBride, ‘Mouthpieces’: stories written in response to Beckett’s manuscripts during a creative fellowship at the University of Reading, to be published by Faber and broadcast by RTE radio in 2019 - Week 6 - Beckett’s treatment of space: ‘The Capital of the Ruins’, Waiting for Godot, Endgame, The Lost Ones, Quad - Week 8 - Brian Dillon: In the Dark Room, Sanctuary - Week 9 - Beckett & intellectual failure: Watt, Malone Dies, Happy Days, Company, Catastrophe - Week 10 - Joanna Walsh: Vertigo and Niamh Campbell: ‘Vanitas’ - Week 11 - Beckett & intermediality: How It Is, Quad, Texts for Nothing - Week 12 - Brian O'Doherty: Aspen 5+6, Structural Plays, Hello Sam

Primary material I encourage you to read Beckett’s collected plays and trilogy of novels before the module. Faber and Grove are good editions. The adaptations of Beckett’s plays in the Beckett on Film collection (2001) is also a very helpful resource and starting point – there are DVDs in the library (on the English floor).

Secondary material In addition to reading and watching the fiction and drama, you should familiarise yourself with some biographical context. James Knowlson’s Damned to Fame (1996) is considered definitive, but Anthony Cronin’s The Last Modernist (1996) is generally better on the Irish side of things. In terms of secondary reading, good starting points are The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett, ed. C.J. Ackerley and S.E. Gontarski (2004), the two Cambridge Companions to Beckett, eds. John Pilling (2006) and Dirk van Hulle (2015) and Samuel Beckett in Context, ed. Anthony Uhlmann (2013). I’ll recommend suitable secondary and critical resources as we go, to support our discussions throughout the course.

Assessment The module will be assessed through two assignments: 1. Response following class visit to see Beckett’s manuscripts (1,500 words, 25%): due in week 6 2. Essay (3,500 words, 75%): due in week 14

Learning Outcomes - Map the relationship between Beckett’s creative practice and that of a range of contemporary writers and artists through private research, class discussion, and interaction with Beckett’s manuscripts - Develop a sophisticated understanding of the formal, aesthetic and conceptual legacy of Beckett’s writing in visual art and literature - Access Beckett’s archive and create own response to his manuscripts and letters

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