Beckett and Aesthetics

by Daniel Albright

As a young man, Samuel Beckett (1906-89) hoped that writing could provide psychic authenticity and true representation of the physical world. Instead, he found himself immersed in artificialities and self-enclosed word games. Daniel Albright argues that Beckett sought escape through allegories of artistic frustration and the art of non-representation and estrangement. Albright depicts Beckett experimenting with the concept that an artistic medium might be made to speak. Engaging with radio, film, television, prose and drama, Albright's Beckett becomes a sophisticated theorist of the very notion of the aesthetic.

Genres: Literary Criticism

188 pages, Hardcover

First published December 22, 2003

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title here is slightly misleading because this is less an analysis of Beckett's explicit or implied aesthetics as it is a description of the techniques Becket employed, and more specifically regarding his limiting of the stage and spare stage props, and his denial of the medium in his radio and television plays. Despite the lack of an overall account of Beckett's aesthetics--as with Beckett's works, Albright leaves us to interpret his descriptions--I found this an illuminating study: A good lens through which to reread the source texts; especially the radio and television plays. One aesthetic takeaway is that above all else Beckett was intent on revoking figuration. Keeping that in mind while reading Beckett is always useful and that notion underpins most of Albright's examples.