INTRODUCTION

During the seven years that our journal has been in existence we have witnessed a good many controversies concerning Beckett's work. The posthumous publication of Dream 0/ Fair to middling Women (1992), Beckett's first novel, and Eleutheria (1995), his first play, was accompanied by much adverse criticism, with the French, English and American Beckett publishers publicly flying at each other. We have also seen a number of disputes in the press between the Beckett Estate and theatre makers over performance rights for unorthodox productions of Beckett's plays, and for innovative, 'genre-crossing' experiments, adapting his prose texts for theatrical or other artistic purposes. Such requests have been refused more often than not; on Eleutheria for instance there squarely rests a performance embargo that is not likely to be lifted in the foreseeable future. At the root of these problems lies, it must be conceded, Beckett's own highly idiosyncratic, and paradoxical attitude towards his own creations ("My writings are no sooner dry than they revolt me"), which often resulted in delayed publication or downright refusal, and in an inconsistent policy with regard to granting or withholding permission for performance. In a wider sense there are also a good many controversies surrounding the genesis and transmission of his texts, including his self• translations. Recent textual scholarship is only beginning to unravel Beckett's complex process of constantly 'undoing' and rewriting himself. And, lastly, there are various controversies in recent Beckett scholarship, as a result of subjecting his work to new insights and strategies, postmodern and other. From the enthusiastic response to last year's announcement of the proposed topic, elliptically called Beckett versus Beckett, we have culled thirty-one contributions that make up the present issue. A few words by way of orientation for the reader of these pages. Although it is not always easy to maintain strict boundaries, the articles - all of them preceded by brief abstracts - have been grouped as follows: the first batch (nos. 1-7) deals with the text as a language event, covering Dream 0/ Fair to middling Women, studied in the light of a recently discovered notebook, two variant vers ions of "L'Expulse", two recently unearthed early texts by Beckett, and three translation stu• dies; nos. 8-10 consider the text as a theatrical event, with overviews of recent productions of Eh Joe and Embers, followed by a reconsideration of Film.

9 A large group of articles (nos. 11-17) concentrates on the text as a critical event and examines Beckett's narrative strategies of 'undoing' in a variety of ways; internal controversies mayaIso open onto critical oppositions. Nos 18-20 present highly controversial interpretations of Mercier and Camier, Eleutheria and "Enough", while no. 21 pleads for a revaluation of Beckett's light verse. The next two articles point up the relevance in Beckett's work of rats and sores, their gnawing and itching, never peacefull insistence. Nos. 24-25 underscore the intertextual importance of Bishop Berkeley's writings and Dante's texts, enlarging the horizon of more or less agonistic encounters. Finally, no 26 opens a defying polemic with contemporary philosophers concerning their approach to Beckett. The inclusion of the last tive articles (27-31) deserve a special comment. As the introduction to the Groningen Workhop on "First Love" points out in detail, these articles were originally intended for a two-day post-graduate workshop on interpretation. Although avowedly written by non-Beckett scholars, they are worth publishing in our view not only for what they have to offer by way of contrastive approaches to a complex, rieh, and witty text, but also because they show how the Beckettian text can be approached afresh without the burden of specialisation. We are most grateful to Carolyn Ayers for having collected and pre-edited these contributions for uso Beckett's work reflects the twentieth century, torn up by its fundamental discord, but our author is also like a 'Janus Bifrons', standing at the door of new questions in a new millennium, questions that will not be simple in any way.

The Editors

INTRODUCTION

Au cours des sept annees d'existence de notre revue, nous avons pu etre temoins d'un bon nombre de controverses concernant I'oeuvre de Beckett. La publication posthume de Dream 0/ Fair to middling Women (1992), le premier roman de Beckett, et celle de Eleutheria (1995), sa premiere piece, furent accompagnees de nombreuses cfitlques contradietoires, que les editeurs se lanc;aient publiquement les uns aux autres. La presse nous a offert egale me nt plusieurs polemiques opposant les executeurs testamentaires de Beckett et les metteurs en scene reclamant le droit de representer des productions non orthodoxes de pieces de Beckett et des experiences innovatrices de 'melange de genres', des textes en prose eta nt adaptes a des tins theätrales. Pareilles

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