Creative Involution

An original philosophical approach to one of the 20^th 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 20^th and now 21^st 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).