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Although Samuel Beckett's plays indicate his abiding interest in the complex functioning of memory, little has been written on the topic. The aim of this study, therefore, is to examine the wide-ranging, specific approaches towards recall and forgetting that he reflects in his drama. Because conversational strategies are grounded in cognitive processes, the interplay between memory and discourse will also be probed. The thesis foregrounds Beckett's profound distrust of memory functioning, as well as his conviction that `yesterday' has dangerous power to `deform'. Through his own perception and his psychological study of dysfunctional, decaying and trauma-charged memories, he is able to apply a comprehensive knowledge-base to the creation of his time-damaged characters. In the scrutiny of their autobiographical memories, the reconstructive and imaginative components become apparent. These are mainly shown to alienate characters from one another, so that Beckett's claim that memory can remedy suffering becomes questionable. The investigation is informed by a variety of critical disciplines, as well as insights derived from the Proust Monograph. Beckett's investigation of the psychology of the 1930s is evaluated, in addition to current medical and psychological research into gerontology, amnesia, dementia, and the repressed or obsessive memories of the neurotic. Conway's work on the characteristic features of autobiographical memory illuminates relevant Beckett plays. An appraisal of discourse studies focuses on language and power, phatic communication and the multiple speech acts that reflect the functioning of normal and dysfunctional memory. Reference to the work of Lacan and Derrida enhances discussion of the inadequacy of language. To give due attention to the theatrical component of Beckett's drama, enactment, performance criticism and audience reception of his plays are discussed. / English Studies / D.Litt. et Phil.

Critics and audiences alike have neglected the idea of Wilde as a precursor to Beckett. But I contend that a closer look at each writer's aesthetic and philosophic tendencies-for instance, their interest in the fluid nature of self, their understanding of identity as a performance, and their belief in language as both a way in and a way out of stagnancy -will connect them in surprising and highly significant ways. This thesis will focus on the ways in which Wilde prefigures Beckett as a dramatist. Indeed, many of the themes that Beckett, free from the constraints of a censor and from the societal restrictions of Victorian England, unabashedly details in his drama are to be found residing obscurely in Wilde. Understanding Beckett's major dramatic themes and motifs therefore yields new strategies for reading Wilde.

Nous traitons la question d’un rapport entre écriture et voix dans la clinique des psychoses. A l’appui des témoignages de sujets psychotiques, sujets disant écrire ce qui survient sous forme de voix, nous interrogeons les ressorts et les enjeux de ce passage à la lettre. Revenant sur la clinique de l’hallucination, nous détaillons ce que les sujets psychotiques nous enseignent sur les mécanismes impliqués dans l’instant de la voix hallucinée. Suivant ce fil, nous mettons en valeur la dimension de jouissance inhérente à la voix. Dans un second temps, nous nous penchons plus spécifiquement sur les pratiques d’écriture des sujets rencontrés, pratiques où il s’agit de noter, d’arrimer sur papier ce que les voix font entendre. Suivant les pistes annoncées par nos patients, nous questionnons la fonction régulatrice d’une pratique de la lettre. Pour ce faire, nous reprenons les conceptions lacaniennes de la lettre comme « littoral » ou comme « godet ». De même, les propos de nos patients nous mènent à interroger en quoi l’écriture pourrait permettre de « faire partir » la voix, en quoi elle ferait le moyen d’un détachement. Les œuvres et les témoignages d’écrivains nous donnent l’occasion de pousser plus avant notre questionnement, d’arpenter les domaines où, toujours, l’artiste précède le clinicien. Ainsi, nous revenons sur les travaux de James Joyce, de Louis Wolfson et, surtout, de Samuel Beckett. Nous nous penchons sur les indications qu’ils nous livrent au sujet d’un nouage entre écriture et voix. L’objet de notre recherche est de mettre à l’épreuve l’hypothèse selon laquelle, dans la clinique des psychoses, le recours à l’écrit peut relever d’un traitement de la voix. / We examine the issue of a link between voice and writing in psychosis. Relying on psychotic subjects who say they write what they hear through voices, we study the nature of this shifting from voice to letter. As a first step, we specify what we mean by voice. We detail what psychotic subjects teach us about the mechanisms involved in the moment of the hallucinated voice. By doing so, we point out the part of jouissance involved in voice.As a second step, we focus on their writing practices, the moment when they take note, when they put down on paper what they hear through voices. We endeavour to elucidate the issues of this movement. We are led to examine the regulating function of writing. Therefore, we refer to the lacanian concept of letter as « littoral » or « godet ». Moreover, patients’ words led us to specify how writing could be a way to make the voice “go away”, a way to separate. The works and the testimonies of writers lead us to go on exploring a field where the artist always precedes the clinician. We refer to James Joyce, to Louis Wolfson, and especially, to Samuel Beckett’s works. We try to grasp the indications they give about a link between voice and writing. The purpose is to test the hypothesis which states that, in psychosis, the use of writing can be a way to treat the voice.

Publicado em 1956 em inglês, Malone Dies foi o segundo romance do que se convencionou chamar de trilogia de romances do pós-guerra de Samuel Beckett. O presente trabalho estuda como o narrador em primeira pessoa, Malone, cria, ao longo das mais de 120 páginas, um tipo de narrar diferente, recheado de incertezas com base na aporia e na memória em frangalhos, o que leva o leitor a um terreno pantanoso em que as antigas certezas do romance tradicional foram eliminadas. O objetivo desta dissertação está em explorar como a materialidade histórica tanto do período de produção do romance, a Segunda Guerra Mundial na França ocupada, quanto o da sua publicação, imediatamente após o encerramento do conflito, são pontos cruciais para esse novo tipo de narração desenvolvido por Samuel Beckett. Paralelamente, este projeto tenta dar a sua pequena contribuição ao movimento crítico de resgate empirista realizado por uma série de críticos beckettianos que, nos últimos anos, passaram a se focar na materialidade histórica da produção do romancista e enfrentar a ideia até então consensual de que Samuel Beckett era um autor a-histórico e focado apenas em questões metafísicas. / Malone Dies was published in 1956 in English, being the second novel of what became Samuel Becketts trilogy. This work aims to study how the first person narrator, Malone, is able to establish, in 120 pages, a different kind of narration, full of uncertainties based upon aporia and in his memory in shambles, which leads the reader to an unstable ground in which the old certainties of the traditional novel are eliminated. The main goal of this dissertation is to explore how the historical materiality of both the period of the novels writing, the Second World War in occupied France, and that of its publication, soon after the war ended, are crucial points to this new type of narration developed by Samuel Beckett. At the same time, this project attempts to make its small contribution to the empiricist trend developed by many Becketts scholars which, in the last years, have focused on the historical materiality of the novelists production to confront the hitherto consensual idea that Samuel Beckett was an ahistorical author, focused only in metaphysical issues.

Partindo do exame dos pressupostos do realismo formal no romance, a dissertação pretende demonstrar como a desconfiança do narrador beckettiano quanto aos fundamentos que sustentam a voz em primeira pessoa e a estrutura ficcional do romance, observada desde Molloy e Malone Morre, dá lugar ao exame dos fundamentos relacionados à constituição da própria noção de subjetividade e desdobra-se em reflexões de natureza linguística em O inominável. Momento em que a hipótese de que é na linguagem e pela linguagem que o homem se constitui como sujeito, formulada pelo linguista Émile Benveniste, será desenvolvida considerando a dimensão trágica da experiência do eu. Com efeito, parte da tarefa da desta dissertação consiste em demonstrar a pertinência do trágico em O inominável, com o propósito de aprofundar a discussão teórica sobre a narrativa do século XX. / From an examination of the formal assumptions realism in the novel, the dissertation aims to demonstrate how distrust of Becketts narrator at the grounds that support the voice in first person and the fictional structure of the novel, observed since Molloy and Malone Dies, giving rise to the investigation of the grounds related to the constitution of the notion of subjectivity and unfolds in linguistic nature reflections in The Unnamable. Moment when the hypothesis that it is in the language and by the language that humans is constituted as subject, formulated by the linguist Émile Benveniste, will be developed based on the tragic dimension of the experience of \"I\". Indeed, part of the task of this dissertation is to demonstrate the relevance of the tragic dimension in The Unnamable, in order to deepen the theoretical discussion of the twentieth centurys narrative.

Publicado em 1956 em inglês, Malone Dies foi o segundo romance do que se convencionou chamar de trilogia de romances do pós-guerra de Samuel Beckett. O presente trabalho estuda como o narrador em primeira pessoa, Malone, cria, ao longo das mais de 120 páginas, um tipo de narrar diferente, recheado de incertezas com base na aporia e na memória em frangalhos, o que leva o leitor a um terreno pantanoso em que as antigas certezas do romance tradicional foram eliminadas. O objetivo desta dissertação está em explorar como a materialidade histórica tanto do período de produção do romance, a Segunda Guerra Mundial na França ocupada, quanto o da sua publicação, imediatamente após o encerramento do conflito, são pontos cruciais para esse novo tipo de narração desenvolvido por Samuel Beckett. Paralelamente, este projeto tenta dar a sua pequena contribuição ao movimento crítico de resgate empirista realizado por uma série de críticos beckettianos que, nos últimos anos, passaram a se focar na materialidade histórica da produção do romancista e enfrentar a ideia até então consensual de que Samuel Beckett era um autor a-histórico e focado apenas em questões metafísicas. / Malone Dies was published in 1956 in English, being the second novel of what became Samuel Becketts trilogy. This work aims to study how the first person narrator, Malone, is able to establish, in 120 pages, a different kind of narration, full of uncertainties based upon aporia and in his memory in shambles, which leads the reader to an unstable ground in which the old certainties of the traditional novel are eliminated. The main goal of this dissertation is to explore how the historical materiality of both the period of the novels writing, the Second World War in occupied France, and that of its publication, soon after the war ended, are crucial points to this new type of narration developed by Samuel Beckett. At the same time, this project attempts to make its small contribution to the empiricist trend developed by many Becketts scholars which, in the last years, have focused on the historical materiality of the novelists production to confront the hitherto consensual idea that Samuel Beckett was an ahistorical author, focused only in metaphysical issues.

O objeto de estudo desta tese é a composição pictórica de Ohio Impromptu, de Samuel Beckett. Sendo assim, apresenta uma poética visual como estratégia interdisciplinar de análise da obra, incluindo a sua versão em filme. A partir de sua contextualização histórico-social na pós-modernidade, tendo por base autores como Zygmunt Bauman e David Harvey, juntamente com a definição, delimitação e contextualização das referências artísticas presentes na peça e no filme, é analisado o modo como as escolhas pictóricas feitas pelo autor interferem no conceito de espaço e suas relações com o tempo, assim como o espaço do livro enquanto elemento de conexão entre espaço e tempo em relação ao espectador-leitor, Listener, Reader e autor. O espaço é analisado por dois ângulos: o pictórico, ou seja, de que modo o espaço é trabalhado e tratado na obra de arte contemporânea, especialmente no que se refere à ruptura do espaço do quadro e o derretimento das fronteiras da obra enquanto categoria; o literário, a partir do que Gaston Bachelard propõe como poética do espaço – uma topoanálise da obra enquanto espaço de síntese do imemorial com a memória, um estudo psicológico sistemático dos locais da nossa vida privada. Nesse teatro do passado, que é a nossa memória, às vezes acreditamos nos conhecer no tempo; no entanto, o que realmente conhecemos é apenas uma série de fixações nos espaços de estabilidade de seres que não querem seguir adiante no tempo, que no seu próprio passado, quando vão à procura do tempo perdido, querem suspender a passagem do mesmo. A poética do espaço lida com o espaço da nossa solidão e, ali, espaço é tudo, já que o tempo não anima a memória. As metáforas apresentadas por Gaston Bachelard podem ser facilmente relacionadas com o universo de Ohio Impromptu, não somente porque Listener e Reader estão colocados em uma sala, ao redor de uma mesa, mas principalmente porque o texto está imerso no espaço do devaneio que é, de acordo com o autor, a casa das memórias. Ohio Impromptu é uma casa com sótãos e porões, cantos e corredores cheios de memórias não reveladas, palavras não ditas, sentimentos e faces inesquecíveis – uma síntese perfeita do imemorial com a memória. Através de uma poética visual, somada a uma topoanálise, chegamos à presença velada do autor e sua própria história permeando o espaço da obra, e a um conceito de tempo como antítese do tempo pósmoderno; um tempo que persiste pela repetição, que resiste ao apagamento; o tempo do mito. Através destes procedimentos de análise, chegamos a uma noção de tempo em Beckett enquanto kairos. / The object of study of this dissertation is the pictorial composition of Ohio Impromptu, by Samuel Beckett. Therefore, it presents a visual poetics as an interdisciplinary strategy of analysis of the work, including its film version. From its socialhistorical contextualization within postmodernity, based on authors such as Zygmunt Bauman and David Harvey, altogether with the definition, delimitation and contextualization of the artistic references present in the play and in the film, it is analyzed the way the pictorial choices made by the author interfere in the concept of space and its relations with time, as much as the space of the book as an element of connection between space and time in regard to the reader-spectator, Listener, Reader, and author. The space is analyzed from two perspectives: the pictorial one, that is, the way the space is constructed and treated in contemporary artwork, especially in regard to the rupture of the space of the painting and the melting of the frontiers of the work as category; the literary one, from what Gaston Bachelard proposes as a poetics of the space – a topoanalysis of the work as a space of synthesis of the immemorial with memory, a systematic psychological study of the locals of our private life. In this theater of the past, which is our memory, sometimes we believe to know ourselves in time; instead, what we really know is just a series of fixations in the spaces of stability of human beings who do not want to move on in time, who in their own past, when they go in search of the lost time, want to suspend the passage of time. Space retains the compressed time. The poetics of space deals with the space of our loneliness. Here, space is everything, for time does not animate memory. The metaphors presented by Gaston Bachelard can be easily related to the universe of Ohio Impromptu, not only because Listener and Reader are set in a room, around a table, but especially because the text is immersed in the space of reverie which is, according to the author, the house of memories. Ohio Impromptu is a house of attics and basements, corners and corridors full of unrevealed memories, unspoken words, unforgettable feelings and faces – a perfect synthesis of the immemorial with memory. Through a visual poetics, added to a topoanalysis, we reach the veiled presence of the author and his own story permeating the space of the work, and a concept of time as an antithesis of the postmodern time; a time that persists through repetition, a time that resists erasure; the time of myth. Through these procedures of analysis, we reach a concept of time in Beckett as kairos.

La place du silence est fondamentale dans le théâtre de Samuel Beckett. Touché par les horreurs d’Auschwitz, le dramaturge ne cesse de présenter des personnages au seuil de la mort et qui ont le sentiment que la communication est difficile, parfois vaine, et que pourtant il leur faut continuer à parler. Malgré son invisibilité, son caractère fluctuant et fuyant, le silence reste signifiant, ouvrant un espace vierge qui se remplit alors de sens. Protéiforme, le silence est ambivalent. La faillite du langage verbal entraîne le recours à d’autres langages. La présence des objets scéniques, le spectacle des gestes et de la danse, le jeu de l’ombre et de la lumière ont le rôle de pallier l’absence d’action et la désarticulation de la parole. Se taire chez Beckett devient un jeu scénique purement visuel. Le dramaturge dépasse toutes les limites pour mettre en scène un silence qui est à la fois le matériau et l’objet du jeu théâtral. / The place of silence is fundamental in the theater of Samuel Beckett. Touched by the horrors of Auschwitz, the playwright continues to present characters on the threshold of death and they have the feeling that communication is difficult, sometimes vain, and yet they must keep talking. Despite its invisibility, its fluctuating and fleeing character, the silence remains meaningful, opening a virgin space which then fills with meaning. Protean, the silence is ambivalent. The use of verbal language bankruptcy to other languages. The presence of scenic objects, the show of gestures and dance, the play of shadow and light have the role to compensate for the lack of action and the disarticulation of the word. Shut up at Beckett becomes a purely visual stage play. The playwright exceeds all limits for staging a silence as both the material and the object of the theatrical game.

Cette thèse examine la pertinence d’une filiation beckettienne chez John Banville, et propose d’envisager les apparentes divergences d’écriture comme les manifestations d’une même affection mélancolique : en effet, l’économie beckettienne et la profusion banvillienne pourraient constituer deux produits d’une écriture placée sous le signe du double et du décalage. John Banville poursuit à sa manière le projet beckettien de l’esthétique de l’échec : il illustre, à l’instar de son devancier, l’impossibilité de concilier deux images contradictoires de la réalité, celle, idéale, d’une pensée conduite selon les règles de la science, et cette autre, proliférante, instable, de la matière même. Le principe selon lequel le double dégradé de l’idéal met en échec toute tentative d’ordonner les données du réel sous-tend et caractérise les œuvres de ces deux écrivains, que rassemble une même fascination pour la science et ses systèmes de pensée. Le fossé séparant idéal et contingence, ordonnancement de la pensée et chaos matériel, y abrite la source d’une écriture mélancolique. L’analyse du discours pseudo-scientifique, qui dans le même mouvement témoigne d’une volonté affichée d’apprivoiser le réel et révèle l’instabilité fondamentale de l’être et du langage, permet de mettre au jour une filiation mélancolique. C’est cette filiation que l’on peut suivre en observant les persistances visuelles et auditives, et plus largement la perpétuation du ressassement de la pensée spéculative : les images, voix et pensées de l’impuissance font perpétuellement retour au sein des œuvres, mais également d’une œuvre à l’autre, et de Beckett à Banville. / This thesis tries to uncover a literary filiation between Samuel Beckett and John Banville, with particular emphasis on Beckett’s Trilogy and John Banville’s scientific tetralogy. It proposes to consider their apparently diverging modes of writing as two manifestations of the same melancholy affection: the economy of means in Beckett and its profusion in Banville could be regarded as two modes of literary production characterized by discrepancy and error. John Banville follows the Beckettian project of an esthetics of failure – like his predecessor, he illustrates the impossibility of successfully combining two contradictory images of reality, one an ideal image driven by thought mechanisms modelled on scientific procedures, and the other, a buzzing, instable image of matter itself. The principle whereby the degraded double of the ideal necessarily defeats every attempt at ordering the data of reality underpins and defines the works of the two writers, displaying a fascination for science and systems of thought. In their fiction, the gap between ideal and contingency, between thought processes and material chaos, is the source of a melancholy inspiration. The analysis of pseudo-scientific discourse, which both testifies to a determination to gain control over chaotic reality and reveals the fundamental instability of being and language, allows us to uncover a link between the two writers, based on melancholy. This legacy can then be evidenced through the observation of the same visual and auditory perceptions, and more largely the perpetuation of boundless speculation: images, voices, and thoughts of impotence recur throughout the works, but also from one work to the next, and from Beckett to Banville.