THE TASK OF THE LISTENER: Beckett, Proust, and Perpetual Translation

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In this Subject: Literature
By this author: Michael D&#039;Arcy

Author: Michael D'Arcy

Source: Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui, Pastiches, Parodies & Other Imitations/Pastiches, Parodies & Autres Imitations. Edited by/edité par Marius Buning, Matthijs Engelberts & Sjef Houppermans. , pp. 35-53(19)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

This paper argues that the conception of music as intrinsically other than phenomena or representation that Beckett derives from his reading of Schopenhauer and Proust centrally informs his undermining of the reconciliatory capacities of literary form. Beckett'sinsistence on this idea of music in his 1931 essay Proust becomes important for his indictment of notions of the symbol descending from eighteenth and nineteenth century literary aesthetics, and for his framing of the temporal predicament of the writing subject. According to the logic of Beckett's essay,the "translation" of impressions that for Proust defines the task of the writer is one of necessary incompletion.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2002-12-01