Beckett and eros : death of humanism / Paul Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davies, Paul, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989--Criticism and interpretation.

Beckett, Samuel.

Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989.

Sex in literature.

Myth in literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

Gender identity in literature.

Humanism in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

ix, 239 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2000.

Summary:

"Beckett and Eros: Death of Humanism" explores Beckett's tragic projection in which spiritual, political, and gender experience are combined, exposing the erroneous operations of Cartesian awareness which become sexualized in the dramatic gender conflict in myth and literature. "Beckett and Eros" is the first book in 25 years to give an answer to the question, "Do we mean love when we say love? ... soul when we say soul?"; Davies' approach offers a startling point for valuable dialogue between radical new age thought and the postmodernism of academe.

Contents:

Part I Womb of the Great Mother Emptiness: Mythopoetic Contexts for Beckett

1 Beckett and Eros: Mentioning the Unmentionable 3

2 On Mythographic Reading 23

3 Elysium of the Roofless 39

4 Beckett, the Heart Sutra, and dzogchen 53

5 On the Descent of the Soul 72

6 Complete Being 90

Part II The Dark Stream: Beckett's Mythologies of Eros

7 What it is their Humanity Stifles 111

8 After the Second Crisis: Entering the Cylinder 125

9 Krapp's Tapes and the Myth of Recurrence 143

10 Mrs Rooney at the Mouth of Creation 152

11 Care and Punish 166

12 Madness of the Norm 179

13 Open Sky Mind 197

14 That Unheeded Neither 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-236) and index.

ISBN:

0312234074

OCLC:

43661961