Zugl.: Berlin, Freie Univ., Diss., 2006

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Adelaide, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [195]-200).

In this thesis I explore the idea that Samuel Beckett's 'Ping' is a text that 'performs' - acting on the reader to create an active response - through the act of translating the text into a different medium - one that fundamentally also 'performs'; sounds, shows, moves, that of moving-image.

No description available.

Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 273-280).

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)

Dissertation--Berlin, 2006. / Bibliogr. p. 241-262.

Samuel Beckett has long been known as a philosophical author, who drew on philosophical work to create haunting images and intricate texts that are felt by later thinkers to express so well their own questioning of the foundations of Western thought. On the other hand, Beckett's own interests lay with philosophical writers of the 17th and 18th centuries. This thesis looks at the way Beckett infuses the tenets and metaphors of the 18th -century philosopher George Berkeley with new meanings that transform early modern theories into artistic works that continue to appeal to audiences and thinkers to this day. Research into Beckett's philosophical sources was an important subject from early Beckett criticism onwards. Significant early works include Ruby Cohn's "Philosophical Fragments in the Works of Samuel Beckett" (1964);1 John Fletcher's "Beckett and the Philosophers" (1965);2 and Edouard Morot-Sir, "Samuel Beckett and Cartesian Emblems" (1976).3 What is common to these essays and other research published at the time is the identification of Beckett's thinking with a Cartesian stance. The increasing amount of archive materials available to researchers, including letters, his personal notes, and the books left in his library after his death, has had a tremendous impact by showing that Descartes was...