This essay is principally concerned with the nature and possibilities of action in Samuel Beckett1s four major stage plays: Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapp's Last Tape, and Happy Bays. The problem arises from the fact that each of these plays is organically inconclusive, indicating that the action is not causally structured in the Aristotelean sense. Action is therefore examined in terms of the characters' separate activities: how they are initiated and terminated, their internal order, and their relation to each play as a whole. The three basic sources employed for criteria are Beckett's critical essay, Proust; his early novels, Murphy and Watt; and Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens. Proust provides a clear indication of Beckett's theories on time, habit, and friendship; Murphy and Watt are seen as character prototypes; and Homo Ludens is useful in that it supplies a working definition of play. After a detailed examination of each play in the above terms, the general conclusion reached is that in all cases Beckett has portrayed a state of being as opposed to a process of becoming. In other words, the characters feel and act as though they are caught in an endless present: in their situations they feel cut off from their past, and at the same time they cannot plan and project their activities toward a known goal, for the future is completely uncertain. Consequently, aside from those moments when the characters have no effective control over their actions, and aside from those actions governed by some form of necessity, everything they do during the course of the plays is done simply to fill the enormous void of time. Considered separately, each activity or strategy of waiting is seen to conform to the characteristics of play as defined by Huizinga, and furthermore, each activity is seen as a habitual response to reality. The similarities between one activity and another are conditioned by two fundamental factors: a subject-object dichotomy, or the relation between the individual, the world, and other people; and death, the one event in human life which is certain, but not fixed. The differences between the various activities, on the other hand, are conditioned primarily by the ages of the characters: the older a character is the more he loses contact with the world and other people, and this affects the scope of his activities. It is finally concluded that Beckett has portrayed the fundamental isolation of western man—the tragicomedy of individualism. Cut off from others and time, man's habitual response to life and the external world has been to devise strategies of waiting for the time when it will all end. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

This thesis is an exploration of all the plays of Samuel Beckett written for the live theatre, with a view to elucidating their meaning through a study of the objects present on the stage. The frame of reference is consistently that of the play in actual production. The Beckett stage is never cluttered: there are always very few people, words, or things in the Beckett·dramatic world. Similarly there is little movement. (The same people, words, things, and movement, however, repeat themselves obsessively.) It is proposed that every object specified as being on stage by the stage directions of the author or by the dialogue, and whether functioning as part of set, costume, or properties, makes a dramatic statement in interaction with word and gesture. What man docs and says in relationship to things largely defines his existence. As the dramatic oeuvre of Beckett progresses from Waiting for Godot (1953) to Not I (1972) the function and significance of objects becomes increasingly marked as people, words, and movement convert to things, silence (or incoherent outpourings), and stillness. As the Beckett world becomes increasingly "reifie" the bleakness of his vision is intensified. Beckett's use of objects as part of his theatrical language becomes increasingly sophisticated and complex. It is discovered that two peculiarly Beckettian contributions are made to what Artaud called "le langage concret" of the stage: character-objects, and light functioning as object. The use of both emphasizes the dehumanization of Beckett's characters: as they become progressively static and fragmented they become increasingly less the manipulators of objects and are increasingly themselves manipulated by objects. The light as object elicits the voice in Play and Not I. In Play the human being is part of the object (urn) that contains him and in Not I has herself become an object, Mouth, suspended in the light above the stage. In the last plays, then, the Beckett stage is totally dominated by objects. They make the only statement: the urns and Mouth speak. Since speech is the definitive human attribute of the Beckett hero throughout Beckett's work, objects have thus superseded human beings at the centre of the Beckett dramatic world. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

No description available.

O presente trabalho têm como ponto de partida uma reflexão sobre os processos criativos do diretor grego Theodoros Terzopoulos e o cruzamento desta referência com minha pesquisa como encenador. Terzopoulos e seu método, notadamente suas montagens de tragédias clássicas gregas, serviram de filtro para uma investigação prática nas áreas da encenação e interpretação teatrais, tendo como meta última desenvolver um olhar mais pessoal e aprofundado sobre o fazer teatral. Os resultados da pesquisa são analisados à partir da encenação de Fim de Partida, de Samuel Beckett. / The present work has as starting point a reflexion about the creative process of the greek theatre director TheodorosTerzopoulos and the cross over of his work and my own researches as a director. Terzopoulos and his method, specially his works on classical greek tragedies was the filter to a pratical investigation on stagecraft and acting, where the development of more personal and deeper view was the final aim. The result of this research was analysed with the stagecraft of Samuel Beckett\'s Endgame.

A tese analisa as cinco primeiras peças teatrais de Beckett - Esperando Godot, Fim de Partida, A Última Fita de Krapp, Dias Felizes e Peça e procura identificar seus procedimentos formais básicos, chamados de figuras infernais. Na esteira de Adorno, o estudo da forma aqui realizado encontra na obra de Beckett uma reflexão das configurações sociais e do estado paradoxal da arte dentro deste quadro. As figuras infernais circularidade, confinamento, paradoxo, inconcludência, intermitência, dissimulação e coatividade erigemse também como instrumental crítico para a compreensão do teatro subsecutivo de Beckett, bem como de outros gêneros explorados pelo autor. / The thesis analyses the first five plays written by Beckett Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapps Last Tape, Happy Days and Play aiming to identify their fundamental formal procedures, which we call here hellish figures. Inspired by Adorno, our study of form finds in the work of Beckett a reflection about the social configuration and the paradoxal state of the Arts during his time. The hellish figures circularity, confinement, paradox, inconclusiveness, interminttence, dissimulation and enforcement can be used as a critical tool to understand Becketts other plays and writings.

Mémoire (M.A.)--Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 2003. / Bibliogr.: f.[98]-105.

Submitted by Andrea Hayashi (deachan@gmail.com) on 2016-06-23T13:56:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-gilberto-bettini-bonadio.pdf: 852054 bytes, checksum: 78268677a89c5c70c19b8c3e626875c3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Andrea Hayashi (deachan@gmail.com) on 2016-06-23T14:05:37Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-gilberto-bettini-bonadio.pdf: 852054 bytes, checksum: 78268677a89c5c70c19b8c3e626875c3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-23T14:05:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacao-gilberto-bettini-bonadio.pdf: 852054 bytes, checksum: 78268677a89c5c70c19b8c3e626875c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-04-28 / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / A presente pesquisa tem como tema a investigação sobre o problema do tempo na obra de Samuel Beckett, mais precisamente em seus romances do pós-guerra: Molloy, Malone morre e O Inominável. A partir do ensaio de Beckett sobre Proust e da filosofia de Bergson, procuramos analisar de que forma a pesquisa sobre a questão do tempo nos romances em questão pode nos aproximar do pensamento estético beckettiano, evidenciando, assim, a forma pela qual os questionamentos de Beckett adquirem expressão artística e como as imagens e as histórias surgidas em seu universo literário apontam conteúdos filosóficos, possibilitando uma aproximação no diálogo entre filosofia e literatura / This research has as a theme the investigation about the problem of the time in the work of Samuel Beckett, more precisely in his postwar novels: Molloy, Malone dies and The Unnamable. From Beckett's essay about Proust and the philosophy of Bergson, we try to analyze how the research about the question of time in such novels can get us closer to the Beckettian esthetic thinking, thus showing the way in which the questioning of Beckett acquire artistic expression and how the images and stories arising in his literary universe point to philosophical contents, enabling an approach in the dialogue between philosophy and literature.

A tese analisa as cinco primeiras peças teatrais de Beckett - Esperando Godot, Fim de Partida, A Última Fita de Krapp, Dias Felizes e Peça e procura identificar seus procedimentos formais básicos, chamados de figuras infernais. Na esteira de Adorno, o estudo da forma aqui realizado encontra na obra de Beckett uma reflexão das configurações sociais e do estado paradoxal da arte dentro deste quadro. As figuras infernais circularidade, confinamento, paradoxo, inconcludência, intermitência, dissimulação e coatividade erigemse também como instrumental crítico para a compreensão do teatro subsecutivo de Beckett, bem como de outros gêneros explorados pelo autor. / The thesis analyses the first five plays written by Beckett Waiting for Godot, Endgame, Krapps Last Tape, Happy Days and Play aiming to identify their fundamental formal procedures, which we call here hellish figures. Inspired by Adorno, our study of form finds in the work of Beckett a reflection about the social configuration and the paradoxal state of the Arts during his time. The hellish figures circularity, confinement, paradox, inconclusiveness, interminttence, dissimulation and enforcement can be used as a critical tool to understand Becketts other plays and writings.

Ce travail de recherche étudie la déstabilisation de la hiérarchie entre l’abject et le sublime dans les oeuvres [textes de théâtre, récits et essais] de Georges Bataille, Jean Genet et Samuel Beckett. L’étude part de la constatation effectuée par Jean-François Lyotard selon laquelle la question du sublime se pose à chaque fois qu’une crise de la représentation a lieu [âges de la poétique et de l’esthétique, âge actuel] afin de confronter l’art à ce qui l’excède, lui permettant ainsi de se renouveler. Elle montre que la notion de sublime tend également, lors de chacune de ses réapparitions, à se rapprocher davantage de la notion d’abject, sensée lui être diamétralement opposée. C’est ce qui apparaît dans les oeuvres de Bataille, Genet et Beckett où la doxa qui organise le monde et les valeurs à partir de paradigmes purement antithétiques est déconstruite. Cette redéfinition du rapport entre les notions est analysée aux niveaux stylistique, poétique, esthétique, empirique, psychanalytique, moral et éthique. Un chapitre est dédié à l’étude du phénomène dans l’oeuvre de chaque auteur. Bataille remet en question la hiérarchie entre les notions en définissant un nouvel humanisme « noir » – ou « hyperhumanisme » – grâce à un terrorisme notionnel et littéraire pensant la communication comme un sacrifice. Genet se fait le chantre de l’abject en empruntant les moyens du sublime et en retournant chaque notion en son contraire, au point de ne plus pouvoir les distinguer. Beckett met en place une poétique de la Vanité, déclinée sur les modes classique et postmoderne, permettant de rendre compte de l’inhérente proximité et complémentarité des notions grandissant à travers les siècles. À défaut de proposer une solution au problème posé par Lyotard, ce travail montre la nécessité de prendre en considération le lien unissant le sublime à l’abject lors de toute tentative de renouvellement artistique. / This thesis examines the destabilization of the hierarchical relationship between the abject and the sublime in the works [i.e. plays, prose narratives and essays] of Georges Bataille, Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett. Its starting point is Jean-François Lyotard’s observation that the question of the sublime is raised each time there is a crisis within representation [in the age of poetics, of aesthetics, or in the present day] in order to set up a confrontation between art and that which exceeds art, permitting art to renew itself. Subsequently, it is argued that whenever the notion of the sublime appears it moves in proximity to – and sometimes merges with – its opposite : the abject. This is the case in the works of Bataille, Genet and Beckett, in which a doxa that understands the world and organizes values in terms of purely antithetical paradigms is deconstructed. This redefinition of the relationship between the sublime and the abject is analysed on a poetic, stylistic, aesthetic, empirical, psychoanalytic, moral and ethical level in the work of each author. Bataille can be said to interrogate the hierarchical separation of the two notions in defining a new « black » humanism – or « hyperhumanism » – through the use of a notional and literary terrorism which conceives of communication as sacrifice. Genet makes himself the eulogist of the abject in using sublime means and by changing each notion into its opposite, to the point that it is impossible to distinguish between the two. Beckett introduces a poetics of the Vanitas, understood in both its classical and its postmodern aspects, revealing the developing proximity and complementarity of the two notions. Rather than provide definite answers to the questions Lyotard poses, this thesis demonstrates the need to consider the links and affinities between the sublime and the abject in all attempts at artistic renewal.

O presente trabalho têm como ponto de partida uma reflexão sobre os processos criativos do diretor grego Theodoros Terzopoulos e o cruzamento desta referência com minha pesquisa como encenador. Terzopoulos e seu método, notadamente suas montagens de tragédias clássicas gregas, serviram de filtro para uma investigação prática nas áreas da encenação e interpretação teatrais, tendo como meta última desenvolver um olhar mais pessoal e aprofundado sobre o fazer teatral. Os resultados da pesquisa são analisados à partir da encenação de Fim de Partida, de Samuel Beckett. / The present work has as starting point a reflexion about the creative process of the greek theatre director TheodorosTerzopoulos and the cross over of his work and my own researches as a director. Terzopoulos and his method, specially his works on classical greek tragedies was the filter to a pratical investigation on stagecraft and acting, where the development of more personal and deeper view was the final aim. The result of this research was analysed with the stagecraft of Samuel Beckett\'s Endgame.