Samuel Beckett, câștigător al Premiului Nobel pentru Literatură, este unul dintre cei mai profunzi, mai originali scriitori ai secolului XX. Felul în care proza lui exprimă suferința și izolarea conștiinței umane a schimbat fața literaturii universale. Beckett vorbea despre proza scurtă ca despre unul dintre momentele importante ale operei sale, un mediu extrem de intens în care și-a distilat ideile. Strânsă într-un singur volum, proza lui dă imaginea evoluției artistice, dezvăluindu-i în același timp scriitura ca parte a unui proces într-o perpetuă mobilitate.
„Acum, că negura anilor ’50 s-a risipit, iar etichete precum «absurd», «existențialist» și Dumnezeu mai știe ce au dispărut de la sine, e din ce în ce mai limpede cât de mult este legată proza lui Beckett de cotidian, de lucrurile obișnuite. Realul strălucește, totul este imanență, totul este acolo. În proza lui Beckett, momentul este rege.” (The Observer)
„În mintea majorității cititorilor, numele lui Beckett este legat de misteriosul Godot, care până la urmă ar putea să vină sau nu — dar care, orice am spune, a creat starea de spirit a unei generații. În proza sa, Beckett este artistul posedat de viziunea unei vieți neconsolate, lipsite de orice urmă de demnitate sau de speranța mântuirii, în fața căreia minciuna e inutilă. Beckett dă expresie acestei viziuni printr-o limbă de o rară vigoare stilistică și subtilitate intelectuală: iată ce-l aduce în rândul celor mai mari prozatori ai secolului XX.” (J.M. Coetzee)
Novels of Samuel Barclay Beckett, Irish writer, include Murphy in 1938 and Malone Dies in 1951; a wider audience know his absurdist plays, such as Waiting for Godot in 1952 and Krapp's Last Tape in 1959, and he won the Nobel Prize of 1969 for literature.
Samuel Barclay Beckett, an avant-garde theater director and poet, lived in France for most of his adult life. He used English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black gallows humor.
People regard most influence of Samuel Barclay Beckett of the 20th century. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce strongly influenced him, whom people consider as one modernist. People sometimes consider him as an inspiration to many later first postmodernists. He is one of the key in what Martin Esslin called the "theater of the absurd". His later career worked with increasing minimalism.
People awarded Samuel Barclay Beckett "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation".
In 1984, people elected Samuel Barclay Bennett as Saoi of Aosdána.
When I first started reading Beckett (Molloy)I got so annoyed. It fascinated me and irritated me in the same time. I could not see the hidden meaning of what he was bumbling about in that novel. Same with Tarkovsky's films a while ago. Then I started reading his short stories (Beckett now) and stopped looking for hidden meanings and just enjoy the ride. And to my eyes a new world of experimental literature opened. I just finished his last written short story "L'image" (1988 - he died in 1989) - a big phrase 2 and a half pages long. It starts with a man watching his tongue filled with mud, eating the mud, the eyes under the mud and then we go to an image of youth (16 year olds, a boy and a girl, holding hands, having a picknick, dog following them in the middle of nature). And that is what Beckett creates - images, atmosphere. Three pages and you get an image which will stuck in your head. I think for each one who reads a certain story, the image is different. Each story resonates differently. Sometimes you almost can hear the other voice in the head of the main character combined with the main voice which talks about the other voice. Difficult to write about it, but we all know those voices, those mental dialogues.
Having read both the English (not all of it) and the Romanian translation, I have to say, that some stories are best read in their original (French or English it doesn't matter, as most of the French works had been translated by Beckett himself). For example Ping / Bing is something YOU HAVE TO READ in English. Concerning the Romanian translation, both translators did a fantastic job. Piece of advice - don't try to understand Beckett. You won't. Let your mind flow and that is all that you need. "Texts for nothing" are indeed nothings. Some parts make sense, some don't. But now, let's be honest - how much of the stuff that goes through your heads make sense? Nobody thinks rationally. Rationality is just what comes out. Otherwise would be all schizos out in the open :))