Beckett in the Cultural Field/Beckett dans le champ culturel ed. by Jürgen Siess, Matthijs Engelberts, and Angela Moorjani (review)

The year 2014 sees the twenty-fifth anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s death, and yet the response to his work, from both analysts and creative practitioners, retains a seemingly unstoppable momentum. The eighteen essays in this stimulating volume, by contributors from eight countries, demonstrate just how far-reaching the Beckettian tentacles can be. Although only the first eight essays come formally under the thematic heading (which concerns Beckett’s ‘posture’ in a broad cultural context), many of the remainder also have some bearing on the theme. The first part, ‘Confronting the Arts, Investigating Reception’, considers the implications of Beckett’s absorption in the paintings of Jack Yeats (Joanne Shaw) and in the theoretical works of Henri Bergson (Dustin Anderson). Tram Nguyen provides a rewarding comparison between Beckett and Gertrude Stein, both of whom had a penchant for letting punctuation and syntactic clarity drain away through increasingly permeable language, the better to maximize ambiguity. Robert Reginio’s use of a Beckett-inspired 2011 art installation by Joseph Kosuth to discuss affinities with minimalism and conceptual art is counterbalanced by Mariko Hori Tanaka’s presentation of a lack of affinity, in Beckett’s early play Eleutheria, with Sartre’s espousal of personal responsibility. The three essays in the second part, ‘Entering the Field’, all bring to bear a specific sociocultural or historical milieu. Angela Moorjani expertly discusses Beckett’s 1951 novel Molloy in relation to littérature engagée and the nouveau roman. One of the key figures in managing the book’s promotion and reception—Jérôme Lindon of éditions de Minuit—reappears in Nadia Louar’s Bourdieusian examination of the ‘Beckett irlandais’ as distinct from the francophone or Anglo-Saxon Beckett. Julie Campbell shows how Beckett’s six-year spell of writing for the radio coincided with ambitions at the BBC Third Programme to continue commissioning and broadcasting ear-catching experimental work. Among the essays making up the third part, ‘Free Space’, Paul Lawley explores ways in which Derek Mahon’s poetry ‘has been nourished by Beckett’s imagination’ (p. 155), while Tom Vandevelde applies debates about the narrativity of drama to the radio play Cascando. Notwithstanding that Beckett’s work is seen by some as too abstract, there are two fascinating engagements with choseté in Beckett: David Foster focuses on the urns that the characters of Play ‘exhabit’, while Edward Bizub’s attention turns to the stamp imparted to Beckett’s work by shoes and clodhoppers. In a beautifully written piece, Mary Catanzaro situates the prose work The Lost Ones at the intersection between fiction and political commentary. For her, the sterile interactions within the sealed cylinder illustrate the physical and psychic strain imposed on individuals when placed under surveillance by repressive regimes. Two random reflections emerge after a ramble through this richly furnished volume. First: Beckett’s profoundly original handling of genre and his innovative approaches to sound, space, and light make it likely that his work will continue to attract research from a perspective of intermediality. Second: Moorjani comments humorously that ‘producing a text that encourages making sense of what cannot be made sense of is […] a brilliant ploy to get your work talked about endlessly’ (p. 94). If ploy it is, it seems to be working.