BECKETT AND THE MODERN NOVEL

Transcription

1 BECKETT AND THE MODERN NOVEL Samuel Beckett s narrative innovations are among his most important contributions to twentieth-century literature. Yet contemporary Beckett scholarship rarely considers the effect of his literary influences on the evolution of his narrative techniques, focusing instead on Beckett s philosophical implications. In this study, challenges the utility of reading Beckett through a narrow philosophical lens, tracing new avenues for understanding Beckett s work and, by extension, the form of the modern novel by engaging with English, French, German, and Russian literature. Presenting new empirical evidence drawn from archives in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States, Bolin demonstrates Beckett s preoccupation with what he termed the European novel : a lineage running from Sade to Stendhal, Dostoevsky, Gide, Sartre, and Céline. Through close readings of Beckett s manuscripts and novels up to and including The Unnamable, Bolin provides a new account of how Beckett s fiction grew out of his changing compositional practice, even as he moved beyond early exemplars. john bol in completed his M.Phil. and D.Phil. at Exeter College, Oxford. From 2008 to 2011 he lectured at Oxford, where he was the Bamborough Junior Research Fellow at Linacre College. He currently lectures at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales.

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3 BECKETT AND THE MODER N NOV EL J O H N B O L I N

4 c a m b r i d g e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, S ã o Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, n y , us a Information on this title: / Jo h n B o l i n Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Bolin, John, 1979 Beckett and the modern novel /. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn (hardback) 1. Beckett, Samuel, Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. pr6003.e282z dc isbn Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of u r l s for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

5 For my mother and father

6 Beckett always saw himself his post-war, as well as his pre-war self as part of a continuum with the European literary and artistic past. We cannot, therefore, understand the remarkable leaps of the imagination that he made to produce some of the most radical work in prose of the twentieth-century without knowing where he is leaping from. (James Knowlson, Images of Beckett ) No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond. (Andr é Gide, Journals )

7 C ont e nt s Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations page ix xi I nt ro duc t ion 1 1. The Integrity of Incoherence : Theory and Dream of Fair to Middling Women A n I ron ic a l R a d i a nc e : Murphy and the Modern Novel The Creative Consciousness : The Watt Noteb o ok s Te l l i n g t he Ta le : Na r r ator s a nd Na r r at ion ( ) I m a g e s of t he A ut hor Oh It s On ly a Di a r y : Molloy The Art of Incarceration : Malone Dies 153 Conclusion: Beckett and the Modern Novel 168 Not e s 177 B ibl i og r a ph y 201 In d e x 211 vii

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9 Ackn owl e d g m e nt s Above all, I wish to thank Ronald Bush, who supervised my doctoral thesis on Beckett: for his careful reading of this project in its various stages, for his guidance and advice, and for the example of his own work, I am deeply grateful. I am also indebted to those experts and friends who helped me think through and revise my writing on Beckett in detail. My special thanks to John Pilling, James Knowlson, Shane Weller, David Walker, Erik Tonning, Matthew Feldman, Mark Nixon, Jeri Johnson, and the anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press. The writing of this book was made possible by institutional and individual support during my years as a student and a research Fellow. My thanks to the University of Oxford, which granted me a Clarendon Fund bursary and an Overseas Research Studentship; to Exeter College, Oxford, for offering me the Amelia Jackson Senior Studentship and several assorted bursaries; to Linacre College, Oxford, which awarded me the Bamborough Junior Research Fellowship so that I could revise my manuscript; and to Lady Wheare, for her patronage during my student days. For their criticism, friendship, and guidance, I am grateful to Bernard and Heather O Donoghue, John and Christine Kelly, Peter McDonald, David Bradshaw, Paul Giles, Vaughan Roberts, and Patrick and Sarah Hayes. During the years I was preoccupied with this project, I had the pleasure of working as a Lecturer at St Catherine s College, Oxford and Lincoln College, Oxford. I am thankful for the stimulating conversations I enjoyed with the students and faculty during my time there. For their assistance, I am grateful to Richard Workman and his colleagues at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, Austin; to the staff members at the Beckett Archive at the University of Reading; to the archivists at Trinity College, Dublin; and to the librarians at the John J. Burns Library at Boston College. I am also thankful for the hospitality of Dr and Mrs LaFrance during my time in Boston, and the kindness ix

10 x Acknowledgments of the friends who facilitated my stay in Texas. My grateful thanks to the Estate of Samuel Beckett, and to Edward Beckett for providing me with the cover image of this book. I also wish to acknowledge the Board of Trinity College, Dublin. Every effort has been made to ensure that all quotations from copyrighted material fall within the definition of fair dealing for the purposes of literary criticism. I am grateful to my commissioning editor, Ray Ryan, and to Louis Gulino, Marielle Poss, and the other staff members at Cambridge University Press for their commitment to this project. I have many other debts, too many to list here. I am extremely grateful to Katherine for her patience and her concern for my work. This book is dedicated to my mother and father.

11 Abbr e viat ion s In the citations from Beckett s letters, SB indicates Samuel Beckett, TM Thomas McGreevy, MM Mary Manning, and GD Georges Duthuit. works by samuel beckett Dis Disjecta (London: John Calder, 2001 ). DFMW Dream of Fair to Middling Women (London: John Calder, 1993 ). DN Beckett s Dream Notebook, ed. John Pilling (Reading: Beckett International Foundation, 1999). LSB 1 The Letters of Samuel Beckett : , vol. 1, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). LSB 2 The Letters of Samuel Beckett: , vol. 2, George Craig, Martha Dow Fehsenfeld, Dan Gunn, and Lois More Overbeck, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ). M Murphy (London: John Calder, 2003). MC Mercier and Camier (London: John Calder, 1999 ). N First Love and Other Novellas (London: Penguin Books, ). N B Watt Notebooks, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, box 6 (folders 5 7); box 7 (folders 1 4). PTD Proust and Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit (London: Joh n C a lder, 1999 ). T Tr i log y : Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable (London, Montreal, New York: John Calder, 1994 ). W Watt (London: John Calder, 1998). W TS Watt Typescript. Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, box 7 (folders 5 6). xi

12 xii AP BBG BC C D DF DP GC J L LC N OLSK PS U List of Abbreviations works by other authors Joyc e, Ja me s, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (London: Pen g u i n B o ok s, 1992 ). Pi l l i n g, Joh n, Beckett before Godot (Cambridge: Cambridge Un iver sit y Pre s s, ). Pi l l i n g, Joh n, A Samuel Beckett Chronology (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Gide, A nd r é, The Counterfeiters, trans. Dorothy Bussy (London: Penguin Books, 1966 ). Gide, A nd r é, Dosto ï evsky, trans. Dorothy Bussy (London: Secker and Warburg, 1949). K now l s on, Ja me s, Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett ( L ondon: Blo om sbu r y, 1996 ). A c k erle y, C. J., Demented Particulars: The Annotated Murphy (Tallahassee, FL: Journal of Beckett Studies Books, 1998 ). A c k erle y, C. J. a nd S. E. G ont a r s k i, The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett (New York: Grove Press, 2004 ). Gide, A nd r é, Journals , trans. Justin O Brien (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1967). Gide, A nd r é, Lafcadio s Adventures, trans. Dorothy Bussy (New York: Vintage International, 2003 ). Gide, A nd r é, Logbook of the Coiners, trans. Justin O Brien ( L ondon: C a s s e l l, 1952 ). S a r t re, Je a n-pau l, Nausea, trans. Robert Baldick (London: Pen g u i n B o ok s, ). A c k erle y, C. J., Obscure Locks, Simple Keys: The Annotated Watt (Tallahassee, FL: Journal of Beckett Studies Books, 2005 ). Gide, A nd r é, La Symphonie pastorale in La Symphonie pastorale and Isabelle, trans. Dorothy Bussy (London: Penguin, 1963 ). K en ner, Hu g h, Ulysses (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1980 ).