Scarica SAMUEL BECKETT SUMMARY e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! SAMUEL BECKETT Samuel Beckett was born in 1906 in Dublin, where he studied French and Italian at the Trinity College. Then he went to Paris where he worked as an English teacher, becoming a friend of James Joyce. He started traveling around the world and fought with the French Resistance until 1942 when he was forced to escape. After the end of the war, he started working with his playwrights, like “Waiting for Godot” which let him become famous. In the 1960s his successful plays led to a career as a theatre director and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Because of the health problems he died in 1989. A CORPUS OF TIMELESS MASTERPIECES His most famous play is “Waiting for Godot” a tragicomedy in two acts, it was originally performed in French because Beckett wanted to break the boundaries imposed by the English language. This play didn’t have a real plot and created a great shock to the audience. In 1957 Beckett composed “Endgame” a play that is set in a post-atomic bunker, which shows the existential loneliness. “Krapp’s Last Tape” in which a man who listens to his voice talking about his past happiness. “Happy Days” is a long endless monologue by Winnie, based on the contrast between Winnie’s memory of her past happiness and her actual condition of loneliness. In Beckett theatre language was replaced by silence and movement was replaced by stillness. ABSURDIST PLAYWRIGHT Many of Beckett’s plays belong to the Theatre of Absurd genre, which rejected any logical plot development but offer an insight into the absurdity of human existence. Post-war theatre defines the world as mysterious. The main structural features are: The absence of a traditional plot, in fact, Beckett’s plays are circular and don’t have a real ending; A mix of comedy and tragedy; The lack of action, in fact, the characters’ actions are meaningless and they appear as if they are lost in a universe where things have lost their meaning. THE ALIENATION OF THE MODERN WORLD Beckett explores the inconsistency, alienation, and fallacy of the modern world through a series of themes: The negation of time, his characters have no past and no future, and repeat constantly their actions; The problem of perception, many characters don’t believe in their real existence and show their fear through never-ending monologue; The idea of imprisonment, express through the repetition of actions and clichés. THE PROBLEM OF LANGUAGE AND MEANING Beckett’s characters explore all the expressive possibilities offered by language: using repetitions, high and low terms, and silence,… Beckett wants to show that language is fragmented, meaningless, and unable to express anything. This is why he chose to write “Waiting for Godot” in French, so he could break the mask of the language to see all the things behind it.
