Samuel Beckett - Novelist, Playwright and Writer for the TV Screen

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” (Samuel Beckett, Worstward Ho, 1983) This seminar will provide an introductory overview to the oeuvre of Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). While Beckett’s international fame is largely owed to his work for the theatre, particularly his ground-breaking play Waiting for Godot (1953), he began his literary career as a novelist and continued to write prose throughout his life. Since the 1960s, he also wrote for the radio, television and film, exploring the creative potentials of these media.In this seminar, we will survey Beckett’s oeuvre through and across genres and media, examining essential structures and motifs, literary techniques and topics in his work. Through our close reading of his texts (including recorded productions of plays, films and radio plays) we will see how Beckett, like no other author of the 20th century, has verbalised and poeticised the experience of modern man and the essentials of human existence in an age of growing uncertainty and instability.
Primary Reading:During the seminar, we will discuss a variety of Beckett’s texts, among them the prose trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable; plays such as “Waiting for Godot”, “Endgame”, “Happy Days”, “Not I” and “Krapps Last Tape”, as well as his work for television. In preparation for the course, students should familiarise themselves with the above mentioned texts.
Suggested Secondary Reading:David Pattie’s The Complete Critical Guide to Samuel Beckett. London: Routledge, 2000. provides a good, reader-friendly and comprehensive introduction both to Beckett’s life and his work. A comprehensive course bibliography and semester apparatus will be made available at the beginning of the course. Assessment: Regular and active participation, an expert session and a term paper
2 Kreditpunkte: Expert session and play review
5 Kreditpunkte: Expert session and exam
7 Kreditpunkte: Expert session and term paper