Beckett and Animals
Published on 15. July 2013
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-1-107-01960-7 (ISBN)
Description
The animals that appear in Samuel Beckett's work are diverse and unpredictable. They serve as victim and persecutor, companion and adversary, disconcerting observers and objects oblivious to the human gaze. Bringing together an international array of Beckett specialists, this is the first full-length study to explore the significance of the animals that populate Beckett's prose, drama and poetry. Essays theorise a broad spectrum of animal manifestations while focusing on the roles that distinct animal forms play within Beckett's work, including horses, sheep, cats, dogs, bees, insects and others. Contributors situate close readings within a larger literary and cultural context, drawing on thinkers ranging from Aristotle to Deleuze, Foucault and Agamben, and on authors such as Flaubert, Kafka and Coetzee. The result is an incisive and provocative collection that traverses disciplinary boundaries, revealing how Beckett's creatures challenge conventional notions of species identity and, ultimately, what it means to be human.
Reviews / Votes
'Given the range of perspectives and the conspicuous erudition throughout the essays in this extraordinary collection, readers will surely never look at Beckett's animals - now more noticeable and memorable than ever before - or actual animals in the former way ever again.' William Hutchings, James Joyce Literary SupplementMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 Halftones, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
559 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-01960-7 (9781107019607)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mary Bryden is Professor of French Literature at the University of Reading and Co-Director of the Beckett International Foundation.
Content
List of contributors; List of abbreviations; Acknowledgements; Introduction Mary Bryden; Part I. Animality: 1. Forms of weakness: animalisation in Kafka and Beckett Shane Weller; 2. Beckett, Coetzee, and animals Yoshiki Tajiri; 3. The Beckettian bestiary Mary Bryden; 4. 'Quite exceptionally anthropoid': species anxiety and metamorphosis in Beckett's humans and other animals David Wheatley; 5. An animal inside: Beckett/Leibniz's stone, animal, human, and the unborn Naoya Mori; 6. Pavlov's dogs and other animals in Samuel Beckett Ulrika Maude; 7. Little animals in the brain: Beckett's 'porteurs de la memoire' Yoshiyuki Inoue; Part II. The Specificity of Animals: 8. 'Think, pig!': Beckett's animal philosophies Jean-Michel Rabate; 9. Beckett's 'necessary' cat(s) Linda Ben-Zvi; 10. Making flies mean something Steven Connor; 11. 'Hooves!': the equine presence in Beckett Joseph Anderton; 12. The dancing bees in Samuel Beckett's Molloy: the rapture of unknowing Angela Moorjani; 13. Despised for their obviousness: Samuel Beckett's dogs Chris Ackerley; 14. Beckett and sheep Julie Campbell; 15. 'Eyes in each other's eyes': Beckett, Kleist, and the fencing bear Maximilian de Gaynesford; 16. Words without acts: Beckett's parrots Brigitte Le Juez.