روایت ذلت: درآمدی به اندیشه و آثار ساموئل بکت

Cambridge Introductions to Literature

by Ronan McDonald, علی‌اکبر پیش‌دستی (Translator)

مقصود از تالیف کتاب حاضر یاری رساندن به دانشجویان، تماشاگران نمایش و خوانندگان غیرحرفه‌ای است تا بتوانند نقادانه به بکت و آثار مهم او بیندیشند. لیکن این کتاب به جای یافتن پاسخ و حل معما، به طرح پرسش‌های مربوط و مناسب دست می‌زند.
مولف در خلال بررسی هر یک از نوشته‌های بکت، تنها به دنبال برطرف کردن ابهام و دشواری‌های موجود نیست، بلکه می‌خواهد مقصود از این ابهام و دشواری‌ها و کارکرد زیبایی‌شناسانه‌ی آن‌ها را نیز روشن کند.
این اثر همچون مقدمه‌ای بر آثار بکت محسوب می‌شود.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Literary Criticism

231 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2006

Reviews

[Amin Dashti · Rating 4 out of 5]

بعد از خوندن این کتاب متوجه خواهید شد بکت پیچیده‌تر از چیزیه که قبلا تصور میکردید

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

absurdism = stinky poopy existentialism

[Josita · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really don’t know anything about the nobel

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book, part of a series of Cambridge Introductions to various literary figures, Ronan McDonald aims to familiarize readers with Samuel Beckett’s life and work in about 150 pages. The most helpful part of the book is the first two chapters, which consist of a short biography and a discussion of the cultural and intellectual context in which Beckett worked.

Unfortunately, after that, McDonald explains that he expects readers to have already read all of Beckett's major works before coming to this book. As a result, this volume is no longer a convenient introduction to Beckett for readers who know little about him. The second part of the book consists only of McDonald's examination of various facets of the plays (mainly Waiting for Godot, Endgame and the radio plays) and novels (Watt, Murphy, the Trilogy) that will prove utterly opaque to anyone who hasn't already spent a great deal of time reading and thinking about Beckett. What was the Cambridge University Press editor thinking? Because McDonald chose to make this book more a companion to Beckett than an introduction to him, the book ends up competing with – and losing to – more ample works like The Grove Companion to Samuel Beckett and Hugh Kenner's classic A Reader’s Guide to Samuel Beckett.

Furthermore, these “Cambridge Introduction to X” volumes typically end with a survey of scholarship on the writer in question, but McDonald decides to limit his comments to English-language scholarship. That does readers a real disservice, because so much of Beckett’s reception and influence has been in France and Germany. All in all, I cannot find any reason to recommend this.