Sadean intertext and aesthetics in Samuel Beckett's works / Elsa Baroghel

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Baroghel, Elsa, 1987- author.

Series:

Oxford modern languages and literature monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Beckett, Samuel.

Sade, marquis de, 1740-1814--Criticism and interpretation.

Sade.

Sadism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2026]

Summary:

This is a study of the relevance of the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) to the works of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). Since the publication of his correspondence between 2009 and 2016, Beckett's interest in Sade has become more widely known and the question of a Sadean presence in Beckett's oeuvre has been drawing increasing critical attention. However, Sade's sulphurous reputation tends to overshadow the complex intellectual implications of his thought and works, at the crossroads between philosophy, politics, pornography, and poetry. This book provides novel ways to make sense of Sade's appeal for Beckett beyond his taste for the irreverent: indeed, beneath Sade's 'obscenity of surface', Beckett found a world of discourses simultaneously nourished by and revolting against key philosophical and ideological traditions that had shaped the Enlightenment and from which Modernism would later emerge

"This is the first full-length study of the relevance of the Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) to the works of Samuel Beckett (1906–89). This book identifies Sadean intertext and motifs in Beckett’s writing, and provides novel ways to understand his interest in Sade, in whose works he found a world of discourses nourished by and revolting against key intellectual traditions that had shaped the Enlightenment and from which Modernism would later emerge. The study’s broad chronological structure isolates salient themes within each period of Beckett’s writing while addressing the evolution of his style and aesthetics over time. Chapter 1 (1920s–1940s) traces Beckett’s first encounters with Sade (through such authors as Guillaume Apollinaire, Mario Praz, Marcel Proust) and their resonances with his intellectual and artistic preoccupations, particularly his satirical reception of Enlightenment rationalism and his aesthetic interest in sexuality and disgust. Chapter 2 (1940s–1950s) explores Beckett’s reception of psychoanalytic theory as a terrain of interaction with Sade, drawing on Freud’s theories on ‘anal-sadism’ as recorded by Beckett in his unpublished notes. Chapter 3 provides a comparative study of Beckett’s Comment c’est (1961) and Sade’s Les 120 journées de Sodome (written in 1785), arguing for a Sadean impact on the form, themes, and aesthetics of Beckett’s text. Chapter 4 examines Sade’s continued relevance to Beckett throughout the evolution of his style and aesthetics after 1961. It discusses the recurrent theme of ritualized torture and its linguistic and philosophical implications in Beckett’s ‘torture pieces’, and also draws parallels with ‘noir’ aesthetics and other modernists such as Franz Kafka"-- Oxford Academic

Contents:

Introduction : Sade in Beckett’s time

A ‘kind of metaphysical ecstasy’ : (re)discovering Sade in the first half of the twentieth century

‘Freudian blarney, Sodom and Begorrah’ : From Schopenhauer to Freud … with Sade

Comment c’est and Les 120 journées de Sodome : A case-study

‘Si tant est que le noir les attende’ : Beckett’s ‘gloom’ and the aesthetics of evil

Conclusion : The poetics of imagination

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index

Online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed July 31, 2026)

Other Format:

Print version: Baroghel, Elsa, 1987- Sadean intertext and aesthetics in Samuel Beckett's works

ISBN:

9780198974178

0198974175

9780198974154

0198974159

9780198974161

0198974167

OCLC:

1582163949

Publisher Number:

CIPO000370928

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license