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Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading
This minor dissertation explores the reader's reception of Samuel Beckett's Trilogy. Often considered obscure and even unintelligible, I argue that to read the Trilogy is to affirm Beckett's slippery style of writing. Through a close reading of the three novels, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of English Language and Literature
2015
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| _version_ | 1867613213338632192 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Strombeck, Claire-Marie |
| author2 | Parsons, C |
| author_browse | Parsons, C Strombeck, Claire-Marie |
| author_facet | Parsons, C Strombeck, Claire-Marie |
| author_sort | Strombeck, Claire-Marie |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | This minor dissertation explores the reader's reception of Samuel Beckett's Trilogy. Often considered obscure and even unintelligible, I argue that to read the Trilogy is to affirm Beckett's slippery style of writing. Through a close reading of the three novels, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, I examine how Beckett's narratives deny the reader any sense of finality in the act of reading, while also affirming the reader's freedom in each unique reading of the literary text. In addition to other key Beckett critics such as Hugh Kenner, H. Porter Abbott and Simon Critchley, I use Maurice Blanchot's critical writing on literature, especially those essays contained in The Sirens' Song, as a framework through which to engage with the three novels. Blanchot underscores the necessity of the reader to let the literary text be and not to attempt to subsume the narrative within his/ her hermeneutic expectations. To read the Trilogy and interpret it with any sense of finality is to misread the novels. Instead, my argument calls for a reading that affirms the singularity of the literary text and the elusive nature of Beckett's narrative voices. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13941 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:32:34.479Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publishDateRange | 2015 |
| publishDateSort | 2015 |
| publisher | Department of English Language and Literature |
| publisherStr | Department of English Language and Literature |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/13941 Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading Strombeck, Claire-Marie Parsons, C Clarkson, Carrol English Literature This minor dissertation explores the reader's reception of Samuel Beckett's Trilogy. Often considered obscure and even unintelligible, I argue that to read the Trilogy is to affirm Beckett's slippery style of writing. Through a close reading of the three novels, Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, I examine how Beckett's narratives deny the reader any sense of finality in the act of reading, while also affirming the reader's freedom in each unique reading of the literary text. In addition to other key Beckett critics such as Hugh Kenner, H. Porter Abbott and Simon Critchley, I use Maurice Blanchot's critical writing on literature, especially those essays contained in The Sirens' Song, as a framework through which to engage with the three novels. Blanchot underscores the necessity of the reader to let the literary text be and not to attempt to subsume the narrative within his/ her hermeneutic expectations. To read the Trilogy and interpret it with any sense of finality is to misread the novels. Instead, my argument calls for a reading that affirms the singularity of the literary text and the elusive nature of Beckett's narrative voices. 2015-09-15T10:10:21Z 2015-09-15T10:10:21Z 2013 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13941 eng application/pdf Department of English Language and Literature Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | English Literature Strombeck, Claire-Marie Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| title_full | Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| title_fullStr | Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| title_full_unstemmed | Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| title_short | Samuels Beckett's The Trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| title_sort | samuels beckett s the trilogy and the affirmation of reading |
| topic | English Literature |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/13941 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT strombeckclairemarie samuelsbeckettsthetrilogyandtheaffirmationofreading |