Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-188).

Thesis (Ph.D)--Universität Heidelberg, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-344) and indexes.

Zugl.: Frankfurt (Main), University, Diss., 1976.

O objetivo principal deste estudo é investigar diferentes modos de configurar o silêncio na escrita de Samuel Beckett, reconhecendo-a como um work in progress (obra em processo), por meio da análise de algumas de suas peças teatrais e televisivas, um filme, ensaios e novelas. Para tanto, entendemos o silêncio beckettiano como poética (modo de compor), referindo-o a uma proposta de suspensão e manipulação dramatúrgica de linguagens por uma mimese anti-realista - cujas bases ecoam certos aspectos do pensamento sobre arte de Nietzsche - sendo relida posteriormente por autores como Adorno, Blanchot, Deleuze, Andrade e Lapoujade. Procuramos dar ênfase às imagens corporais como uma das maneiras de Beckett compor uma cena que desfigura os códigos tradicionais de representação para revelar as potencialidades de cada linguagem experimentada. Ao final, propomos uma aproximação de sua poética com criações contemporâneas diversas. / The main purpose of this study is to investigate different ways of configuring silence in Samuel Beckett´s writing, by recognizing it as a work in progress, and also by making analysis of some of his pieces for theatre, television, cinema, critical essays and novels. Thus, we understand beckettian silence as a poetics (mode of composing) reffering it to a proposal of creating language suspension and dramaturgical manipulation in an anti-realistic mimesis - whose basis echoes some aspects of Nietzsche´s ideas about art - which is reread by authors such as Adorno, Blanchot, Deleuze, Andrade and Lapoujade. This research emphasizes body images as one of Beckett´s ways of composing a scene that transfigures traditional codes of representation in order to reveal the potential in each language experienced. By the end, we propose an approach of his poetics to different contemporary works.

Esta dissertação propôs-se a ler Companhia (1980), de Samuel Beckett. Primeiro volume de Nohow on, sua última trilogia, o romance traz ao primeiro plano uma das invenções formais mais instigantes da obra do autor: a voz. Para tanto, foi abordada segundo a teoria da voz de Jacques Lacan, em sua relação com a linguagem e, igualmente, enquanto objeto da pulsão invocante. A partir da psicanálise lacaniana, a voz foi posta em relação com outros aspectos fundamentais da obra de Beckett, tais como o corpo, o luto e o espaço, o que possibilitou aproximações tanto da prosa quanto do teatro do autor. / Reading Company (1980) was the aim of this paper. The first volume of Samuel Beckett´s Nohow on, his last trilogy, the novel brings up to the foreground one of the most thought-provoking formal features of Beckett´s work: the voice. In this reading, voice was approached according to Jacques Lacan voice theory, in what concerns language and, also, as an object of invocatory drive. Departing from Lacanian psychoanalysis, voice was crossed with other fundamental aspects to Beckett´s work, such as the body, grief and space, which allowed to come closer to both his prose and his drama.

Esta tese trabalha uma concepção fundamental para a Psicologia: a de indivíduo, tal como compreendida na obra de Theodor W. Adorno. Neste estudo, essa concepção foi analisada à luz das considerações de Adorno à peça Fim de Partida, de Samuel Beckett. No ensaio Intento de entender Fin de Partida, Adorno avalia essa peça como denúncia realista das condições deterioradas de formação do indivíduo. Para Adorno, é por meio da forma de paródia do drama que a peça expõe a dilaceração das possibilidades de contato entre os homens e destes com a natureza e o mundo. Nesse contexto, outro conceito se fez importante: o de experiência, tal como o entende Walter Benjamin. Esse conceito também foi fundamental para Adorno desenvolver suas análises sobre as condições de constituição do indivíduo. Essas referências iluminam a obra beckettiana, que se desvela em seu aspecto formal como historiografia do sofrimento e explicita o caráter fragmentário e impotente com que a concepção de indivíduo se apresenta na modernidade / This thesis discusses a fundamental conception for Psychology: the individual, as it is conceived in the works of Theodor W. Adorno. In this study, this conception was analyzed in the light of Adorno considerations to the play Endgame, by Samuel Beckett. In the essay Trying to Understand Endgame, Adorno evaluates this play as a realistic denunciation of the deteriorating conditions of the individual\'s formation. For Adorno, is through the form of drama\'s parody that the play exposes the disruption of contact opportunities between the men and between those with the nature and the world. In this context, other concept became significant: the experience, such as Walter Benjamin understands it. This concept was also essential for Adorno develop his analysis of the conditions of the individual\'s constitution. These references illuminates the work of Beckett, which is revealed in its formal aspect as a historiography of the suffering and explains the powerless and fragmentary character that the conception of the individual shows in modernity

Beckett donne à la littérature du XXe siècle, suite au traumatisme langagier induit par Auschwitz, une dimension nouvelle, en plaçant au cœur du texte un silence profondément positif, moteur, centre et point de départ de tout événement. Dès lors, le silence devient élément structurant, constructeur. La dialectique traditionnelle entre silence et parole est donc repensée, et les limites entre ces deux instances, gommées. Le silence forge alors une tension palpable, creusant le texte ainsi soumis à un devenir. Or dans l’esthétique beckettienne, la tension devient le socle de l’identité : l’être se constitue en sujet du fait de la tension qui le traverse. Mu par une poussée désirante, le sujet se tient à la limite mais résiste encore au processus de disparition qui l’assaille. / Following the linguistic trauma induced by Auschwitz, Beckett gives to twentieth-century literature a new dimension, placing at the heart of his text a silence that is profoundly positive, motivating, and which serves as the center and point of departure for every event. From this point forward, silence becomes constructive, taking its place as a structuring element. The traditional dialectic between silence and speech is thus rethought, as the limit between these two poles is rubbed away. Silence forges a palpable tension that digs within a text in the process of becoming. Yet, in the Beckettian aesthetic, tension becomes the base of identity: being constitutes itself as a subject because of the tension that traverses it. Impelled by desire, the subject teeters at its limit, yet continues to resist the threat of disappearance that plagues it.

L’œuvre de Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) est traversée de diverses figures du spectateur. Le terme de spectateur désigne le regardeur et le témoin oculaire d’un événement, et s’emploie souvent depuis l’Antiquité, avec une connotation négative soulignant la passivité. Penser « le » spectateur ne vise pas directement les spectateurs effectifs : c’est une manière de reconsidérer cette entité perceptive au niveau de l’idée. « Le » spectateur interroge sur la corrélation entre la position passive et la perceptivité. L’étude ici présentée, au travers de ce spectateur idéal, cherche à mettre au jour la manière dont il soutient, par sa force négative et perceptive, la créativité de Beckett. Il est indéniable que la philosophie rationaliste du XVIIe siècle, notamment celle d’Arnold Geulincx (1624-1669) influe sur la genèse des figures du spectateur beckettiennes. Elles apparaissent d’abord dans le roman, évoluent ensuite dans le théâtre et l’art audiovisuel, et finissent par engendrer les proses poétiques ultérieures pleines d’imagination perceptive. Tout en déjouant adroitement l’intention du philosophe, Beckett reconstitue l’ordre de l’univers fictif selon l’irrationnel, et ce geste donne naissance à une nouvelle forme d’écriture qui se libère des présupposés philosophiques et des conventions littéraires. Chez Beckett, la passivité n’est pas le contraire de l’activité ou la négation de l’acte, mais elle est la capacité à sentir et à percevoir les choses, de façon tout à fait originale et productive. Par leur passivité même, les figures du spectateur beckettiennes agissent sur le contenu, voire la forme même de l’œuvre. / The work of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is featured by various figures of “the” spectator. The term of spectator refers the viewer and the eyewitness of an event, and is often used since ancient times, with a negative connotation highlighting passivity. Thinking “the” spectator does not mean directly actual audience in the theatre, but it is a way to reconsider this perceptive entity at the level of the idea. “The” spectator questions the correlation between the passive position and perceptiveness. Through this ideal spectator, our study will try to clarify how it supports, by its negative and perceptive power, creativity of Beckett. It is undeniable that the rationalist philosophy of the seventeenth century, particularly Arnold Geulincx (1624-1669), influences the genesis of Beckettian figures of “the” spectator. They first appear in the novel, then develop in the theatre and audiovisual art, and at last, generate the later poetic prose full of perceptive imagination. By outmaneuvering ingeniously the intention of the philosopher, Beckett reconstructs the order of the fictional world according to the irrational, and this brings about a new form of writing that is free from philosophical presuppositions and literary conventions. In Beckett’s work, the passivity is not the opposite of the activity or the negation of the act, but it is the ability to feel and perceive things, in a way absolutely original and productive. Owing to their very passivity, the figures of “the” spectator act on the content and the shape of the work.

Depuis le XVIIe siècle, l’étude de la notion d’ennui a connu une évolution constante en Occident qui lui a permis de se détacher des autres concepts auxquels elle était préalablement associée, notamment ceux de mélancolie, de tædium vitæ et d’acédie. Au XXe siècle, le discours sur l’ennui en philosophie, en sociologie et en psychanalyse s’intéresse spécialement aux rapports entre l’homme et le monde à partir des représentations individuelles et collectives du temps, de l’action et de la vocation. Ces trois composantes de l’ennui aident à comprendre comment ce phénomène s’est répandu dans les sociétés postmodernes et comment il est devenu une forme d’expérience (Erfahrung) pour l’individu capable de se confronter à ses propres limites en tant que sujet agissant et ennuyé. Les cinq romans retenus pour le corpus littéraire du XXe siècle (Senilità de Svevo, Le Puits d’Onetti, Malone meurt de Beckett, L’Ennui de Moravia et La Télévision de Toussaint) analysent l’ennui à travers la mise en abyme de la création. En effet, les cinq héros se heurtent au paradoxe caractéristique de l’ennui profond qui les incite à s’engager dans la voie de l’action créatrice tout en les enfermant dans l’inertie contemplative de leur milieu immédiat. L’ennui permet aux héros-ennuyés de comprendre leur situation dans le monde, d’appréhender l’instant présent et d’aller au-delà de la représentation première de ce qu’ils considéraient leur réalité. Leur expérience de l’ennui, rendue manifeste à travers leur création, permet aux héros d’accéder enfin au statut de configurateurs de monde, au sens de Heidegger. / Since the 17th century, the study of the concept of boredom has known a continual evolution in the Occident, which allowed it to be separated it from other associated concepts such as melancholy, tædium vitæ and acedia. In the 20th century, the discourse on boredom in philosophy, sociology and psychoanalysis took an interest in the relationship between the individual and the world, based on the personal and collective representations of time, action and vocation. These three components of boredom help to understand how this phenomenon spread through postmodern societies and how it became a form of experience (Erfahrung) for the individual able to bring himself face to face with his own limits as an acting subject and as an ennuye. The five novels chosen for the literary corpus of the 20th century (Svevo’s As a Man Grows Older, Onetti’s The Pit, Beckett’s Malone Dies, Moravia’s The Empty Canvas and Toussaint’s Television) analyze boredom through a mise en abyme of the creation. Indeed, the five heroes face the characteristic paradox of boredom that encourages them to engage in the path of the creative action while being restrained by the contemplative inertia of their immediate environment. Boredom enables the heroes-ennuyes to understand their situation in the world, to comprehend the present moment and to go beyond their first representation of what they called their reality. Their experience of boredom is made manifest through their creation that allows them to finally reach the status of world-forming, in Heidegger terms.

A escrita é uma ferramenta poderosa utilizada pelo homem desde que ele descobriu que poderia se comunicar sobre um suporte fixo e não somente pela fala. Ao longo dos anos, o homem desenvolveu essa ferramenta e o suporte onde ela era inserida, transformando e desenvolvendo ambos através de papiros, pergaminhos e códices, até chegar à imprensa, que revolucionou de vez a escrita com a introdução dos sinais de pontuação na mesma. Com o passar dos anos e com o advento da literatura moderna, o suporte textual foi cada vez sendo mais valorizado e trabalhado, até chegarmos a escritores modernos como Samuel Beckett. Mas por que ritmo e escrita? Porque ambos estão intimamente relacionados: não existe escrita sem ritmo. De fato, não há discurso sem ritmo, pois ele é organizado pelo ritmo. Assim, a sintaxe e a pontuação fazem parte do jogo rítmico textual. Pode-se dizer que ritmo, sintaxe e pontuação formam uma tríade poderosa e analisar esses elementos nos três últimos romances de Samuel Beckett é um trabalho importante para se mostrar um trabalho inovador com o ritmo e a escrita. / Writing is a powerful tool used by man since he discovered he could communicate on a fixed support, not only through speech. Over the years, man has developed this tool and support where it was inserted, transforming and developing both through papyrus scrolls and codices, until you get to the press, which revolutionized the writing of time with the introduction of punctuation marks in it. Over the years and with the advent of modern literature, the textual support was increasingly being more valued and worked until we reach modern writers as Samuel Beckett. But why rhythm and writing? Because both are intimately related: there is no writing without rhythm. In fact, there is no speech rhythm as it is organized by the rhythm. Thus, syntax and punctuation are part of textual rhythm game. You could say that rhythm, syntax and punctuation form a powerful triad and analyze these elements in the last three novels of Samuel Beckett is an important job to show innovative work with the rhythm and writing.