Department of English

Samuel Beckett has emerged as one of the most important authors of the 20th century. He has been called the last modernist, but moves beyond schools and genres with a diverse and abundant work in several media. We will survey Beckett’s main works, beginning with his essays on Joyce and Proustm the earlier novels and the essays on art criticism, We will move on to the Trilogy. We will then focus on the main plays and the later prose pieces. Finally, we will analyze the later work for film (Film, to which we will pay special attention), radio and television. We will try to understand why Beckett’s work has attracted so many philosophical readers, from Cavell to Badiou, including Adorno, Deleuze, Badiou, Nussbaum, and Critchley. The aim of the class will be to cover the four volumes of Beckett’s Selected Works (Grove Press, 2010), also to watch and discuss filmed versions of the main plays and televisual works.     

Requirements: two papers (8 pages each), three film journals (3 pages each) and one oral presentation (20 minutes).