Beckett, Lacan and the gaze / Llewellyn Brown.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown, Llewellyn, author.

Series:

Samuel Beckett in company ; 2365-3809 5.

Samuel Beckett in company, 2365-3809 ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Beckett, Samuel.

Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989.

Gaze in literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xv, 625 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Stuttgart : ibidem Verlag, [2019]

Summary:

"Forming a pair with the voice, the gaze is a central structuring element of Samuel Beckett's creation. And yet it takes the form of a strangely impersonal visual dimension testifying to the absence of an original exchange of gazes capable of founding personal identity and opening up the world to desire. The collapse of conventional reality and the highlighting of seeing devices-- eyes, mirrors, windows-- point to the absence of a unified representation. While masks and closed spaces show the visible to be opaque and devoid of any beyond, light and darkness, spectres-- manifestations without origin-- reveal a realm beyond the confines of identity, where nothing provides a mediation with the seen, or sets it within perspective. Finally, Beckett's use of the audio-visual media deepens his exploration of the irreducibly real part of existence that escapes seeing. This study systematically examines these essential aspects of the visual in Beckett's creation. The theoretical elaborations of Jacques Lacan-- in relation with corresponding developments in the history and philosophy of the visual arts-- offer an indispensible framework to understand the imaginary not as representation, but as rooted in the fundamental opacity of existence." -- back cover.

Contents:

Introduction

The collapse f Collective Reality

Mirrors and Frames

Light and Darkness

Doubles and Spectres

Variants of an Ideal

The Monad

Seeing and Unseeing

Technology and the Gaze

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

3838212398

9783838212395

OCLC:

1078884007

Publisher Number:

99983893661