Samuel Beckett and the primacy of love / John Robert Keller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keller, John Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Beckett, Samuel.

Love in literature.

Psychoanalysis and literature--France.

Psychoanalysis and literature.

Psychoanalysis and literature--Ireland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 226 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

textfile

Summary:

This study considers the fundamental literary value and the underlying psychological meaning of Beckett's work. John Keller explores the central place of the emotional world in Beckett's writing, believing the texts embody a struggle to remain in contact with a primal sense of internal goodness.

This study is about the central place of the emotional world in Beckett's writing. Stating that Beckett is 'primarily about love', Dr. Keller makes a radical re-assessment of his influence and immense popularity. The book examines numerous Beckettian texts, arguing that they embody a struggle to remain in contact with a primal sense of internal goodness, one founded on early experience with the mother. Writing itself becomes an internal dialogue, in which the reader is engaged, between a 'narrative-self' and a mother. Keller suggests that this is Beckett's greatest accomplishment as an artist: to document a universal struggle that allows for the birth of the mind, and to connect this struggle to the origin, and possibility of the creative act. This study integrates highly readable discussions of psychoanalytic theory, as well as clinical examples. It will be of value to scholars and readers of Beckett, and anyone interested in his place in literature and culture.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

1. Preliminaries and Proust

2. No Endon sight: Murphy's misrecognition of love

3. This emptied heart: Watt's unwelcome home

4. A strange situation: self-entrapment in Waiting for Godot

5. The dispeopled kingdom: the hidden self in Beckett's short fiction

Epilogue

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

First published: 2002.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [219]-224) and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Other Format:

Printed version:

ISBN:

9786610734290

9781781700297

178170029X

9781280734298

1280734299

9781847790545

1847790542

9781417590551

1417590556

OCLC:

666981004