Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text

by Steven Connor

Drawing on the theories of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze to show the centrality of repetition in Beckett's work, the author explores the paradoxical forms and effects of repetition across a wide range of Beckett's texts, from the early fiction through to the most recent drama. Connor considers Beckett's translations of his own works (both to and from French and English), and Beckett's practice as a director of his own plays, and examines the way in which repetition functions within critical discourse to create and sustain the mythology that has grown up around Beckett's work. This reissue of Samuel Beckett, Repetition, Theory and Text (unavailable since the mid-1990s) has been subjected to a very detailed revision and adds a new, provocative preface by the author

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Steven Connor is Grace 2 Professor of English in the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Director of the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Among his many books are explorations of aspects of the cultural history of the senses, including Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism (2000), The Book of Skin (2004), and Beckett, Modernism and the Material Imagination (2014). His most recent books are Dream Machines (2017), The Madness of Knowledge: On Wisdom, Ignorance and Fantasies of Knowledge (2019), and Giving Way: Thoughts on Unappreciated Dispositions (2019).

Reviews

[mia :•) · Rating 4 out of 5]

cheers steven connor i am stealing all your arguments

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brusque without lacking depth, repetitive without sounding too many of the same notes, and thoroughly researched without drowning in a welter and world of French philosophical terms, Connor commits the minor magic of good scholarship and has produced an interesting and helpful book on Samuel Beckett's drama and novels.