
Creative Involution
Bergson, Beckett, Deleuze
S. E. Gontarski(Author)
Edinburgh University Press
Published on 23. September 2015
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-7486-9732-8 (ISBN)
Description
An original philosophical approach to one of the 20th century's most important literary figures
Creative Involution: Bergson, Beckett Deleuze focuses on a force, on a philosophical trajectory that not only had a profound impact on critical thought of the 20th and now 21st centuries, but on cosmopolitan, contemporary culture more broadly and on artistic experiment and expression in particular. It explores how the work of Samuel Beckett intersects with such preoccupations of time as a "double headed monster," of memory and multiplicity, of being and becoming that continue in an involutionary turn through the work of Gilles Deleuze.
Key Features:
Deploys new critical approaches (e.g., a return to Bergson and Bergsonism)
Addresses underexplored works in the Beckett canon
Presents new critiques of representation and Beckett's relationship to philosophy
Attentive to critical thinking around affect theory and/in literature.
S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University where he edited the Journal of Beckett Studies from 1992-2008. He currently serves as Co-Editor for the Journal. Among his recent books are: The Beckett Critical Reader: Archives, Theories, and Translations (2012) and The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (2014), both from Edinburgh University Press, and a second edition of On Beckett: Essays and Criticism from Anthem Press (2012).
Creative Involution: Bergson, Beckett Deleuze focuses on a force, on a philosophical trajectory that not only had a profound impact on critical thought of the 20th and now 21st centuries, but on cosmopolitan, contemporary culture more broadly and on artistic experiment and expression in particular. It explores how the work of Samuel Beckett intersects with such preoccupations of time as a "double headed monster," of memory and multiplicity, of being and becoming that continue in an involutionary turn through the work of Gilles Deleuze.
Key Features:
Deploys new critical approaches (e.g., a return to Bergson and Bergsonism)
Addresses underexplored works in the Beckett canon
Presents new critiques of representation and Beckett's relationship to philosophy
Attentive to critical thinking around affect theory and/in literature.
S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University where he edited the Journal of Beckett Studies from 1992-2008. He currently serves as Co-Editor for the Journal. Among his recent books are: The Beckett Critical Reader: Archives, Theories, and Translations (2012) and The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (2014), both from Edinburgh University Press, and a second edition of On Beckett: Essays and Criticism from Anthem Press (2012).
Reviews / Votes
Gontarski, one of our finest Beckett scholars, presents a rich plethora of speculative contexts... -- Jacek Gutorow, University of Opole * Explorations: A Journal of Language and Literature, 4 * A book on Beckett and Bergson is long overdue. Creative Involution offers a new and exciting angle that is of crucial importance to the understanding of the author's work. This groundbreaking monograph is a notable contribution to Beckett studies. -- Dr Ulrika Maude * University of Bristol *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
4 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-9732-8 (9780748697328)
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
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2015
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€24.49
Available for download

E-Book
09/2015
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University. He has published more than 40 books, including The Beckett Critical Reader: Archives, Theories and Translations (2012), The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (2014), Creative Involution: Bergson, Beckett, Deleuze (2015), Beckett Matters: Beckett's Late Modernism (2016) and Revisioning Beckett: Samuel Beckett's Decadent Turn (2018).
Content
Acknowledgments; I: "All the dead voices": A Preface; II: "A Mixed Choir" from The Ditch of Astonishment: An Introduction; Anteriors; III: The Invention of the Modern: A Symbiotic Remapping; Chapter IV: "Thought thinks in its own right": A. A. Luce, Samuel Beckett, and Bergson's Doctrine of Failure; Interiors; V: Towards a Creative Involution and Transcendental Empiricism; VI: "What it is to have been": Movement, Multiplicity, and Representation; VII: A Theatre of Deterritorialization and The Questions We Ask; VIII: Beyond the Shadow: Acts of Unceasing Creation; Posteriors; IX: Becoming Degree Zero: Authors Vanishing into the Zone of Imperceptibility