Beckett and Authority

Transcription

1 Beckett and Authority

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3 Beckett and Authority The Uses of Cliché Elizabeth Barry

4 Elizabeth Barry 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Barry, Elizabeth, 1972 Beckett and authority : the uses of cliché / Elizabeth Barry. p. cm. This work investigates the relationship between verbal cliché, memory and authority in Beckett s prose and theatre, and argues that by consciously manipulating the language of clichés, Beckett challenges intellectual, social and religious authority and argues for the creative value of stupidity, a key concept in the thinking of philosophers such as Wittgenstein and Deleuze. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Beckett, Samuel, Criticism and interpretation. 2. Beckett, Samuel, Philosophy. 3. Beckett, Samuel, Literary style. 4. Philosophy in literature. 5. Authority in literature. 6. Stupidity in literature. 7. Discourse analysis, Literary. I. Title. PR6003.E282Z dc

5 For Pat and Jim Barry

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7 Contents Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations ix x Introduction 1 I What is cliché? 3 II Cliché and philosophy 5 III Cliché and rhetoric 10 IV Cliché and aesthetics 15 V Cliché and terror 21 VI Cliché and the body: After Ricks 24 VII Beckett and cliché 26 1 Cliché, Consensus and Realism 30 I Beckett, verisimilitude and the early fiction 30 II Beyond realism: Towards the later work 50 2 Cliché and Memory 65 I Introduction: Memory and automatism 65 II Remembering and imagining things 69 III Culture, memory and the body 84 3 Cliché, Autobiography and Epitaph 93 I What time will tell 94 II The myth of hindsight: Beyond the end in Beckett s theatre Cliché and the Language of Religion 123 I Introduction: Holy Writ 123 II Fallen language and Molloy 131 III Willing and nilling: God and human volition 135 IV The docile herd: Religion and social conformity in the later work 139 V Voice and incarnation 149 VI Theatre, voice and divine communication Beyond Cliché: Authority, Agency and the Fall of Rhetoric 162 I Introduction: Condemned to life 162 II Figures of authority 165 vii

8 viii Contents III Agency and the undoing of rhetoric 181 IV Beyond the figural: The later work 196 V Beyond cliché: The body and the law in Beckett s theatre 203 Notes 209 Bibliography 218 Index 228

9 Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge the generosity of the AHRC, whose Research Grant allowed me to complete this book, and the Department of English at the University of Warwick, which granted me the leave to do so. In particular, at Warwick, I would like to thank Michael Bell, whose tactful suggestions had a profound effect on the development of the argument, and Thomas Docherty for his generous advice on work related to this project. I am also extremely grateful to Colin Davis of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Tom Paulin of Hertford College, Oxford, for their expert guidance with the Oxford D.Phil. thesis which provided the original idea behind this study. Steven Connor has also given enormously useful advice on the project in all its incarnations. I want to thank the staff of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Reading Beckett Archive, in particular Julian Garforth and Mike Bott, for all their help. James Knowlson and, more recently, Matthew Feldman have also provided invaluable knowledge about all things regarding Beckett. Many thanks too to Helen Craine and Paula Kennedy at Palgrave Macmillan, and Vidya Vijayan at Integra, for their patience and efficiency in bringing the project to completion. On a more personal level, the greatest debt in all senses is owed to Pat and Jim Barry, who supported me through the early days of the project and have been unfailingly encouraging throughout. I also want to thank Richard Serjeantson, Ingrid Wassenaar, Julia Waters, Tim Milnes, Michael Whitworth and Anna Richards for reading parts of the draft manuscript, and Charlotte Wright, Gwen Barry, Zamin Iqbal, Madeline Spokes and many other friends for their more indirect support. Jenny Frith has been an inspiration throughout the writing of this work and in every other sphere of life. Finally, I want to thank Andrew Fitzgibbon for his boundless enthusiasm and faith, for being unforgiving as a proofreader and for being forgiving of so much else. The AHRC funds postgraduate training and research in the arts and humanities, from archaeology and English literature to design and dance. The quality and range of research supported not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK. For further information on the AHRC, please see our website ix

10 List of Abbreviations References to Beckett s works are to the following editions: D Dream of Fair to Middling Women [1928] (London: John Calder, 1993) DN Dream Notebook, ed. John Pilling (Reading: International Beckett Foundation, 1999) P Proust (London: Chatto and Windus, 1931) MPTK More Pricks than Kicks [1934] (London: John Calder, 1993) M Murphy [1938] (London: John Calder, 1993) PTD Proust, and Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit (London: John Calder, 1965) PA Premier amour [1945] (Paris: Minuit, 1970) W Watt [1953] (London: John Calder, 1976) MC Mercier and Camier (London: John Calder, 1970) T Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable [1959] (London: John Calder, 1994) Mo Molloy (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1951) Mm Malone meurt (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1953) I L Innommable (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1953) NT Nouvelles et texts pour rien (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1955) CDW The Complete Dramatic Works (London: Faber & Faber, 1990) CSP The Complete Short Prose, (New York: Grove Press, 1995) FP Fin de partie (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1956) CC Comment c est (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1961) HI How It Is (London: John Calder, 1964) C Company (London: John Calder, 1996) ISIS Ill Seen Ill Said (London: John Calder, 1982) WH Worstward Ho (London: Calder, 1983) Disjecta Disjecta: Miscellaneous Writings and a Dramatic Fragment, ed. Ruby Cohn (London: John Calder, 1983) x