مقدمۀ کیمبریج بر ساموئل بکت

Cambridge Introductions to Literature

by Ronan McDonald, قاسم مومنی (Translator)

This is an eloquent and accessible introduction to one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. This book provides biographical and contextual information, but more fundamentally, it also considers how we might think about an enduringly difficult and experimental novelist and playwright who often challenges the very concepts of meaning and interpretation. It deals with his life, intellectual and cultural background, plays, prose, and critical response and relates Beckett's work and vision to the culture and context from which he wrote. McDonald provides a sustained analysis of the major plays, including Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Happy Days and his major prose works including Murphy, Watt and his famous ‘trilogy’ of novels (Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable). This introduction concludes by mapping the huge terrain of criticism Beckett's work has prompted, and it explains the turn in recent years to understanding Beckett within his historical context.

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Literary Criticism

234 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.