• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.58 no.4
• /
• pp.611-632
• /
• 2012

Beckett's life-long struggling with death may be illuminated in terms of the Western tradition of thanatology as well as Philippe Ariès's anthropological classification of death. Among the Western tradition, Beckett's oeuvre incarnates memento mori, timor mori, nihilism, theatrum mundi, life as afterlife, and the transsubstantiation of the self. Among the five views of death Ariès suggests, Beckett appears to foreground the death of the self and the invisible dirty death. In a world devoid of transcendental Signified, Beckett's resident is "a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage." Our contemporary vision of death is dominated by the dirty death and timor mori resurrected from the cultural icon of danse macabre in the late Mediaeval age as vividly dramatized in W;t by Margaret Edson. Beckett stands in no man's land: Lucky complains of divine aphathia as well as scopes at the possibility of God's existence like Hamm. Beckett's way of getting out of the dilemma is laughing a mirthless and dianoetic laugher. To bourgeois class who shudder at the sight of Grim Death after forgettable years of indulgence and addiction to capitalist consumption, Beckett seems to preach, your life is a death-in-life, you are not born yet until you are baptized with existential awakening as Gregor Samsa in Kafka's Verwandlung, or Tolstoy in Confession.

• English & American cultural studies
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.73-97
• /
• 2010

Representation of destitution may be considered as an expression of a social desire toward forging a bond or solidarity with the impoverished. However, political and ethical demands of the solidarity force the formulaic framework structuring the form of representation to its limits. The thesis aims to examine the responses to such demands within the tradition of modernist literature that can be traced from Charles Baudelaire, Knut Hamsun to Franz Kafka and that somehow culminates with Samuel Beckett, and to analyze how the issue of destitution that weaves through Beckett's works criticizes and inherits such a heritage. Whereas destitution in 19th century Realism is structurally fixed and its potential for change is inherently excluded, for these writers, destitution is no longer the state of rigid reality in which any possibility is limited. It is destitution as an imperative that calls for exploitation of possibilities that can be recuperated from the impoverished condition of destitution. What these writers consistently resist against is destitution that leads to compensation and reward. Since occupying a superior position toward the other as the subject of description or sympathy can be seen as one form of profit or reward, they have persistently pursued absolute solitariness and austere conditions rather than prematurely simulating a sense of solidarity and community. The ultimate goal of destitution as an imperative is to pursue destitution in order to worsen it by identifying and then excluding and expending possessions and assets to a state of penury. This is a paradoxical process that opens up the realm of possibilities of destitution and redefines it as abundance and wealth. Destitution for Beckett as seen in the writers above is the objective of literature. But, what he focuses on is to amplify the shreds of economic world that still remain in a state of poverty and to reveal extreme poverty as a state of odd affluence and to transform it into a pursuit of accumulation and profit. One of his famous axioms, "less is more", contains the essence of such a paradoxical strategy. In a sense, such approach is a twist on the strategy that identifies and uses any remaining potential hidden in destitution as was pursued by other writers. It also expands on the imagination of the destitute described by Hamsun. But Hamsun and Beckett are diametrical opposites. Unlike Hamsun, Beckett does not link imagination with a sense of guilt. Imagination is not intended to overcome the destitute reality nor to culminate in artistic martyrdom as in the case of Kafka's hunger artist. The imagination of the impoverished in Beckett is simply a hilarious game and not an escape that ends in a sense of guilt. This game formulates a "rhetorical question" or derision at the ironical situation where the pursuit of hunger and art as the disinterestedness has been turned into symbolic capital. It is inherently a fundamental critique at the aestheticization of destitution that has been pursued by Modernism. Beckett's efforts at divulging falsehood inherent in non-profit acts such as charity, donation and hospitality are dissections of social fictions in which aestheticization of destitution remains a part of the whole.

• English & American cultural studies
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.59-81
• /
• 2013

Samuel Beckett's literary sympathies with underdogs enslaved to authoritative figures, found in his earliest plays, continued in a more or less subdued form in his later plays: Not I is a good case in point thematizing a social authority psychologically embedded within a subject. The incessant bouts of self-defense, or confessional, which Mouth carries out on a dark stage is directed to an inner authority. In Civilization and Its Discontents (1931), Freud's diagnosis for individuals torn between the opposite calls of a social order-- which he called, by turns, civil society, civilization, and culture--and of individual freedom was a "neurosis." What Not I dramatizes seems to be this state of neurosis suffered by a subject bound to the contradictory calls of an internal social authority, which forces Mouth to carry on a confessional till she obtains a symbolically/linguistically viable social title of "I," and of her individualistic denial of the position("what?..who?..no!.. she!.."). Mouth's ordeal on stage does not signify the psychological pressure of the social system, with its disciplinary measures of guilt, justice, and punishment, triumphs over individualistic irregularities and abnormalities, for her "maddened" confession will never see its closure. The opposite psychological forces at work inside Mouth, who is both "in" and "out[side]" "this world," will keep engaging in an eternal battle. In a way, she is a perfect parable about us humans living within a system, "discontent" and hung between the contradictory calls of individualism and social collectiveness.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
• /
• v.33
• /
• pp.95-120
• /
• 2013

This study is about small theaters in Paris which produced the theater of the avant-garde(or theatre of the absurd) in the 50s. Paris was at the center of astonishing passion by small theaters in terms of spectacle. Small theaters actively embraced young actors/actresses, theater troupe and playwrights who created a new way to express their plays. They were mostly obscure but showed talent and genius. So playwrights came from abroad such as E. Ionesco, S. Beckett, A. Adamov and others were able to create a new type of comedy and experience theatrical realization. On the other hand, a great many drama creators such as R. Blin, N. Bataille, J.-M. Serreau, J. $No{\ddot{e}}l$ and others appeared. We focused on studying about life of small theaters in Paris as mentioned earlier. The space of representation were limited. They were mostly about ridiculing of dramaturgy of comedy and theatrical realization. The substandard situations and conditions of small theaters fell far short of advantages of spectacle. Some of the theaters - Babylone, Noctambules, Nouveau Lancry, Quartier-latin - have not been able to survive up to this day. Other Theaters - Huchette and Poche-Montparnasse - have been able to last by performing creative activities. The theaters of the avant-garde are historic places of Drama Art. It is quite astonishing that some of the monuments did not last any longer. These were the places where La Cantatrice chauve by Ionesco and En attendant Godot by Beckett were premiered. When will they be restored to their original state? Meanwhile, the theater of Huchette have performed the comedies of Ionesco for last 60 years without a break. It becomes the museum of theater of the absurd that is the cradle of modern play. In conclusion, a great many play creators like playwrights, directors and set designers saw the light of day because of small theaters when there were not enough support fund. Their passion and curiosity still make us look forward to emerging of new drama.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.242-249
• /
• 2019

This study examined the wounds and healing of the character as a woman in Samuel Beckett's play, Happy Days, through a microscopic approach by focusing on her inner I, and to study how she tries to heal her wounds. Winnie in Happy Days spends hard times not recognizing her internal wounds and pains. By facing her wounds and pains, however, she starts the process of self-healing, mainly through communicating and sharing her sorrows with her past inner child. Winnie's positive and optimistic character appears to change Willie's behaviors, which may be a positive sign that her wounds and pains will possibly be healed. In conclusion, Winnie has a chance to face her inner wounds and pains while interacting and communicating with her husband Willie, and she is slowly heading for healing her wounded inner I.

• Lingua Humanitatis
• /
• v.8
• /
• pp.79-93
• /
• 2006

The modern play is going through a change that is differentiating it from the plays of yesterday. The importance of narration through language, specifically that of words spoken on stage as a means of communication is being replaced by images and minimalism of words. The narration that depended on spoken words today depends more on the images that are conjured on stage. This movement shows also the very development of stage and its craft in the domain of theater and especially holds true in the avant-garde theaters of today. The avant-garde theater, in trying to duplicate the reality does not confine itself to oratory rhetorics that we see in the traditional plays of the past but expresses itself by mimicking the reality to the utmost possible.

• SUVANNABHUMI
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.17-32
• /
• 2012

This study explores the concept of postmodernism in literature. There are many ideas which have conflicted with each other, but now postmodernism is real concept. We cannot deny. By researching papers of Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Roland Barthes, Ihab Hassan etc. we find out many characteristics of postmodernism. From that, we propose a conceptual understanding of postmodern literature as follows: Starting from the late 1910s with the poetry of Dadaism (1916), Franz Kafka's prose (Metamorphosis 1915) and drama by Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot 1953), postmodern literature coexists with modern literature and is a thriving form from 1960 on. Postmodernism is opposed to modernism in nature in that it accepts nothingness, chaos, games and intertextuality. It tries to solve some difficult problems of modernism making use of science to free people from a life of darkness and dogma. Postmodernism is associated with the information technology revolution, an economic, scientific and technological boom and rapid urbanization.

• Steel and Composite Structures
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.531-548
• /
• 2024

This paper presents an experimental investigation into the progressive collapse behavior of composite steel-concrete frames under various column removal scenarios. This study involves testing two two-bay, two-story composite frames featuring CFST columns and profiled steel decking composite slabs. Two removal scenarios, involving the corner column and middle column, are examined. The paper reports on the overall and local failure modes, vertical force-deformation responses, and strain development observed during testing. Findings indicate that structural failure initiates due to fracture and local buckling of the steel beam. Moreover, the collapse resistance and ductility of the middle column removal scenario surpass those of the corner column removal scenario. Subsequent numerical analysis reveals the significant contribution of the composite slab to collapse resistance and capacity. Additionally, it is found that horizontal boundary conditions notably influence the collapse resistance in the middle column removal scenario only. Finally, the paper proposes a simplified calculation method for collapse resistance, which yields satisfactory predictions.

• Lingua Humanitatis
• /
• v.7
• /
• pp.227-246
• /
• 2005

The difference between presentation of cities in the European modern drama and its counterpart the American modern drama denotes and comes from two very different images of cities. While the European modern drama presented cities that were desolate and fantastic to certain measure, the American modern drama presented the images of actual cities that can be identified by the spectators and readers. Although one cannot 'actually' identify any actual representation of cities in both the European and the American dramas, the images of cities can be discerned in the dialogues of the characters in the plays themselves. In this perspective the images of cities that are represented in any work of modern drama are actually represented through metaphors and connotations. The images in this instance rests and can only be identified within the boundaries of psychology. The dialogues are means through which the author communicates with the spectators. Because drama is above all categorized as being a work of text before representation, deciphering drama also falls in to same cadre as any other literary texts. Through the means of 'decontextualisation' the reader/spectator identifies with the associated images that the text proposes.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.539-565
• /
• 2009

T. S. Eliot attempted the combining of the liturgy of Anglican Church and a drama in Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and created a modern verse drama which comes most close to the regular tragedy like Greek tragedy today. Eliot chose the drama to deliver his religious insight because of its ritualistic origin and its potentiality to deliver a dramatic world which can contain a complete order. The central theme of this play is the martyrdom. The dramatic action of killing the archbishop Thomas Beckett in this play, however, is not treated as important event enough to be a dramatic climax. He is portrayed as a witness to the reality of God's will rather than a man who wills to give up his own life for any religious belief or cause. In Eliot, a martyr is nothing but "a witness" in its ancient sense. This paper purposes to review the language of this play. The various and new meters and rhythms of the language of this play function enough to bring its playwright to encounter 'the real audience' in 'a living theatre'. The interactions between different verbal models also play a big role to make this play a living theatre. Eliot found the poetry which crosses the various classes and levels of the tastes of audience is the most useful poetry. And the poetry of this play proves as the very thing which intensifies the theme of the play and gives the most powerful force to the play. Especially Eliot's poetry succeeds smost in the various and free meters of chorus, which makes Eliot the first playwright since Aeschylus, who could bring the chorus to undertake the function of extending the dramatic action of the play into the universal meaning. In the theatre the real audience identifies themselves with chorus. And the chorus leads the audience to respond to peace which passeth understanding beyond words and sounds of this play, which is the desired response in Eliot's conception of drama.