Samuel Barber was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, a town on the outskirts of Philadelphia, on March 9, 1910. He was the son of Samuel Le Roy Barber and Marguerite Beatty Barber. His father came from a long line of tradesmen and professional people and was a doctor and prominent citizen in the Pennsylvanian town in which his son was born. Although no musical tendencies existed on the father's side, there were numerous accounts of musical abilities in his mother's family. Marguerite Beatty Barber was a talented pianist and the sister of the celebrated contralto, Louise Homer. At the age of six, Samuel Barber began to play the piano and a year later began to compose. Although his mother helped to write down some of his first compositions, neither she nor her husband made any attempt to develop a possible prodigy. Instead, they tried to encourage him to indulge in the activities of any normal American boy.

This thesis takes up the question of intertextuality between the Bible and Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre. It starts with the contention that this relationship has acquired something of the status of a commonplace within Beckett studies; not that substantial scholarly works have not widened out considerably the way that this is understood, but in Ruby Cohn’s words: ‘today every Beckett student knows his literary allegiances—the Bible and Dante, above all’. The Bible’s status for Beckett comes to be treated as a matter of common sense. In response to this critical situation, one aspect of the thesis is to disclose and analyse previously overlooked examples of the Bible’s presence in Beckett’s work, engaging with hitherto occluded parts of the oeuvre (unpublished manuscript texts and the French works, for example). But at the same time, it looks to critically question what is at stake in the claim that the Bible is a matter of common knowledge for Beckett. The methodology put to work in the thesis always begins in close readings of Beckett’s texts, and also of the discourses surrounding his oeuvre. In doing so, it resists an idea that close reading entails a retreat into an ahistorical formalism; rather, it argues for an historicism that does not simply rest on broad notions of orthodoxy and shared values. Rather than taking for granted a common sense idea of what the Bible is (even in the limited sense of what it is for Beckett), the thesis argues for its instability as a ‘text’ across more than one language. Nor, I argue, does Beckett’s oeuvre fix down a particular, single notion of the Bible as the relevant one for its own purposes (the King James Bible, for instance); on the contrary, his work is deeply engaged with the Bible in all its complex, multilingual textuality. The thesis contends that the particular relationship between Beckett and the Bible poses distinctive problems for the kinds of epistemological value invested in a certain understanding of intertextuality; indeed, I look throughout to interrogate the authority invested in familiarity—both that of the author and that of the critic. Following this thread, the thesis also undertakes a sustained engagement with the way in which archival materials are used and valued by a critical practice interested in questions of intertextuality. Through this, I look to do two things at once: both to respond to the extraordinary value of archival documentation for opening up new possibilities within Beckett studies, and at the same time to analyse closely the extents and limitations of what can be claimed on the basis of such analyses. In working through these kinds of question, and responding to the particular exigencies produced by the Bible in relation to the Beckett oeuvre, I also engage with critical issues having to do with theories of affect, the notion of style (asking what it means to adduce some piece of text as ‘biblical’ or ‘Beckettian’), and the analysis of intertextuality in performance. Through all of these readings, the thesis is interested in what it means to read intertextuality in relation to a Beckett ‘oeuvre’, when the ambit of that oeuvre, its internal interrelationships and its points of connection with the world, constantly shift and reformulate themselves. Rather than treating the Bible as a thread that can be safely followed from one end of the oeuvre to the other, guaranteeing a continuity that remains free from the complexities, irruptions and discontinuities performed in Beckett’s texts, the thesis argues that biblical intertextuality is actively involved in those complex Beckettian movements.

This thesis focuses on three plays written by Samuel Beckett: Play, Not I and Footfalls. Corporeality is the central theme of these works, which also connects them to an important and celebrated source of study and inspiration for the dramatist, The Comedy of Dante Alighieri. The influence played by Dante's descriptions of the body, particularly in the cantica of Inferno, is visible in Beckett's works for the ways in which the organs of perception and expression are treated at both textual and theatrical level. In the three plays the activities of mouth, eyes, ears (and less relevantly, nose) constitute the narrative focus of the text, while the sensorial aspects derived by their presence on stage determine the kind of exchange at play between actors and spectators. Staging immobilized, constricted and barely visible characters who, narrating obscure, uncertain stories, obsessively try to make a sense of their existential and physical conditions, the author gives life to a metatheatrical language rooted on instability and doubt. After the introductory opening chapter, the second chapter looks at the language of Dante's Inferno and at its thematization of corporeality, introducing the continuities between the poem and Beckett's drama. The third chapter juxtaposes the characters and the uncertain...

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Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo central contribuir para o resgate da obra de Samuel Rawet, principalmente através da análise de sua primeira coletânea, Contos do Imigrante, publicado em 1956. Buscou-se estabelecer o lugar de sua produção literária, sob duas óticas concomitantes e convergentes: a da literatura judaica produzida no Brasil e a da literatura brasileira no gênero que Rawet privilegiou, o conto. Na busca da consecução dessas metas, a pesquisa foi dividida em cinco partes: O capítulo primeiro, Fortuna Crítica de Samuel Rawet, apresenta um levantamento, ao longo da carreira de Rawet, sobre como se procedeu a recepção de sua obra pela crítica especializada; para tanto, foram pesquisados jormais, revistas de literatura e livros de crítica literária. Constatou-se que, em termos gerais, os especialistas sempre acolheram favoravelmente os textos de ficção publicados por Rawet, não obstante algumas poucas opiniões desabonadoras. Porém, o que surpreende, por sua escassez, é a quantidade de textos que tratam da obra de Rawet, a crescente indiferença dos analistas. O capítulo segundo, Uma Autobiografia, procura traçar um panorama da vida de Rawet, com absoluta ênfase para os aspectos relacionados com sua produção literária. Para tanto, foram compilados trechos de entrevistas concedidas por Rawet em diferentes momentos de sua carreira. Estes depoimentos foram contextualizados pelo autor por meio de análises das condições de vida dos judeus na Europa Oriental e de como se procedeu o grande êxodo da Rússia e da Polônia, principalmente para os Estados Unidos, mas também para o Brasil e para outros países americanos. O capítulo terceiro, Narratividade, Linguagem, Exclusão, analisa os primeiros cinco contos da coletânea Contos do Imigrante, ou seja, os contos em que Rawet se detém em protagonistas judeus, em suas relações com as respectivas famílias e com a comunidade judaica, grupos tradicionalmente tidos como pilares da vivência judaica. O capítulo quarto, A Responsabilidade Social, busca observar, por meio da leitura dos cinco contos “não-judaicos" da coletânea Contos do Imigrante, o surgimento da consciência social no jovem Samuel Rawet, na medida em que se sente, cada vez, mais um pensador brasileiro. Por fim, o capítulo quinto, Bibliografia Geral, relaciona todas as obras de Samuel Rawet e tudo o que foi escrito a seu respeito, de cuja existência o autor teve conhecimento, além de outras obras de caráter geral utilizadas no texto. Apesar de ter presente que essa relação é incompleta, acredito que poderá servir de ponto de partida para outros interessados, e espero ter dado um passo, ainda que modesto, no caminho de uma sistematização da bibliografia de e sobre Samuel Rawet, cuja importância é correlativa da importância do próprio Samuel Rawet para a literatura brasileira e para a produção cultural judaico-brasileira. / This research has had as its central purpose to contribute for the rescue of Samuel Rawet’s work, mainly through the analysis of his first book, Contos do Imigrante (Immigrant stories), published in 1956. It was sought to establish the locus of his literary production, under two concomitant and converging optics: that of the Jewish literature produced in Brazil, and that of the Brazilian literature of the genre privileged by Rawet, the short story. Searching to attain these goals, the research has been divided into five parts: Chapter one, Samuel Rawet’s Critical Fortune, surveys the reception of Rawet’s works by the specialized critique alongside his career; newspapers, literature magazines, and books on literature critique were searched. It has been observed that, in general terms, specialists have always given Rawet’s fictional works a favorable welcome, notwithstanding some few dissonant opinions. However, what astonishes us, for its scarcity, is the number of texts dealing with Rawet’s work, the growing indifference of the critics. Chapter two, An Autobiography, tries to draw a panorama of Rawet’s life, with absolute emphasis on the aspects related to his literary production. For this purpose, passages extracted from interviews given by Rawet in different points of his career have been compiled. These testimonies were contextualized by the present author by means of analyses of Jewish life conditions in Eastern Europe and of the particularities of the great exodus from Russia and Poland, mainly to the United States but also to Brazil and other American countries. Chapter three, Narrativity, Language, Exclusion, analyses the first five stories in the anthology Contos do Imigrante, that is, those in which Rawet focuses on Jewish protagonists, the relationships with their respective families and with the Jewish community, groups that are traditionally held as pillars of the Jewish life. Chapter four, Social Responsibility, tries to observe, through the reading of the five "non-Judaic" stories of the anthology Contos do Imigrante, the appearance of a social conscience in the young Samuel Rawet as he feels more and more like a Brazilian thinker. At last, chapter five, General Bibliography, presents a list of Samuel Rawet’s books and all that has been written about him, of whose existence the present author has had acquaintance, besides other works of general character that the author has made use of. Despite being aware that this relation is not complete, I believe that it may serve as a starting point for other researchers, and I hope to have advanced a step, if modest, towards the systematization of a bibliography by and on Samuel Rawet, whose importance is correlate to the importance of Samuel Rawet himself for Brazilian literature and for the Jewish-Brazilian cultural production.

This dissertation is a contribution to the fields of the history of the Hebrew book and early modern Jewish cultural history. It is a study of Sefer Ḥasidim, a text that originated in the medieval Rhineland, in its first two printed editions (of 1538 and 1581, respectively). By analyzing these editions closely, and by comparing them to their manuscript antecedents, it is possible to determine how the work of printing changed Sefer Ḥasidim and how printing shaped readers’ understanding of the text. These investigations advance the argument that the printing of Hebrew books was a creative act, not merely a process of reproduction and dissemination. Like all creative productions, moreover, these editions can be read as witnesses to the particular social and cultural contexts from which they emerged—in this case, a period of upheaval in Jewish life and European society. Moreover, the varied cast of characters who produced these editions—printers, editors, proofreaders, press workers, among others—were influenced by commercial, intellectual and religious interests unique to the sixteenth century and to Italy. These interests left their mark on the texts of Sefer Ḥasidim that emerged from their presses (in the form of censorship and emendations), as well as their associated paratexts (e.g. prefaces, tables of contents and introductions). Part one of this dissertation focuses on the first printed edition of Sefer Ḥasidim, produced by a group of Jewish silk entrepreneurs who called themselves “the partners” in the city of Bologna. It contains two chapters. Chapter one examines who the partners were and their social position within Bolognese Jewry, as well as the legal and institutional framework that regulated the production of Hebrew books in Bologna. Chapter two is a close reading of their edition of Sefer Ḥasidim and a comparison to the extant Sefer Ḥasidim manuscripts. This chapter highlights three areas where the partners innovated: They ascribed the authorship of Sefer Ḥasidim to the medieval pietist R. Judah he-Ḥasid; they prefaced the text with a lengthy table of contents; and they censored the text to eliminate a number of references to Christianity and Christians. Part two focuses on the second edition of Sefer Ḥasidim. It contains three chapters. Chapter three examines the people who created this edition: the Christian printer Ambrosius Froben of Basel and his Jewish and Christian associates. Chapter four focuses on the many paratexts that accompanied Froben’s edition. These documents present Sefer Ḥasidim as a canonical work of scripture and aggadah (rabbinic lore) intended for young students. Chapter five focuses on the text of Sefer Ḥasidim in Froben’s edition and the emendations Froben and his editors introduced. The chapter highlights three kinds of emendations: censorship of anti-Christian passages; the removal of phrases in languages other than Hebrew; and the introduction of punctuation and glosses. Taken together, these emendations create the impression that Sefer Ḥasidim was a “classic” of far greater import than it may have had at the time of its composition. This dissertation closes with a conclusion that describes how the data contained in the previous chapters might be useful for students of the history of the book and Jewish modernity.

Coleman, Tara Jean. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 144-149). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 1 --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- p.102 / Conclusion --- p.141 / Bibliography --- p.144

Excerpt: Beckett is keenly interested in ways individuals unsuccesfully atempt to disown their past. His explorations into this reflect his awareness of being a survivor of the Second World War.

Review of Samuel Beckett’s Plays on Film and Television by Graley Herren.

Review of A Companion to Samuel Beckett edited by S.E. Gontarski.