Engagement and Indifference: Beckett and the Political (review)

BOOK NOTES HENRY SUSSMAN and CHRISTOPHER DEVENNEY, eds. Engagement andIndifference: Beckettandthe Political. Albany: SUNY Press, 2001. vii + 176 pp. Few would argue with the claim that Samuel Beckett is one ofthe literary giants of the twentieth century. His position in the literary pantheon was secured well before thepolitical was established as a priority in criticism and critical theory. During the last quarter ofthe twentieth century, works such as Terry Eagleton's Criticism and Ideology (1976), Raymond Williams's Marxism andLiterature (1977), and Frederic Jameson's Political Unconscious (1981) ushered in a wave of interest in political criticism. Marxist and ideological criticism explicitly established a central role for the political in literary criticism, while other areas ofcritical theory such as race, class, gender, and sexuality studies also asserted the import of the political, albeit less directly. The recent rise of postcolonial studies only confirms the entrenchment ofthe political as a continuing force in criticism and theory. For the most part, Beckett's work has been neglected by the post-1975 generation of political critics noted above. Even if one can find the occasional classbased reading ofEndgame or gender politics interpretation ofHappy Days, work on Beckett and the political is scarce. Indeed, the received opinion ofBeckett's relationship to the political is represented more by indifference than by engagement. Beckett's writings are often described as "detached" or indifferent to the political: the world his characters occupy is minimally engaged with politics. If humans are indeed "political animais" as Aristotle argues, then the aim ofBeckett's characters and language can be said to be an "overcoming" ofthis aspect of our nature. Beckett's aim is arguably to escape from our political nature and its trappings in the same way that he aims to escape the dehumanizing force of logic and reason (one might read The Unnameable as a grand effort in this regard). At the heart ofBeckett's writing is an ongoing investigation oflanguage and its limitations. The essays in this fine and innovative collection aim to engage Beckett from this key position: the destabilizing political force of language. The contributions might thus be regarded as more closely related to the post-1967 French poststracturalist generation (e.g., Derrida, Cixous, Lacan) than the more obvious types ofpolitical literary criticism mentioned above (Eagleton, Jameson, Williams). Contributor Christian Prigent describes the genesis ofthis "other" sense of the political well: "From at least the time of the Greeks we have understood politics to be a linguistic affair, the management in and by means of verbal exchanges ofconflicts which otherwise would explode violently into actions" (76). The writers in this collection locate Beckett's political action primarily at the level of linguistic exchange. Thus his political engagement is best viewed through the lens ofhis philosophy oflanguage. Of the nine contributors to this volume, only Prigent is critical of the notion that Beckett's work is engaged in the political. The other eight contributors view Beckett's oeuvre as a contribution to the politics oflanguage. The essays are drawn from a 1993 conference at SUNY/Buffalo, and are the most important collection ofessays to date on the relationship ofBeckett's politics to his philosophy oflanguage . Essayists included two deans ofpostmodem literary criticism, Brian McHaIe and Marcel Comis-Pope, as well as two essays from one ofthe world's great Beckett scholars, novelist Raymond Federman. The volume also includes essays by AnJanette Brush, Christopher Devenney, Carla Locatelli, Gabriele Schwab, and Henry Sussman. The contributors' positions range from asserting Beckett's direct VcH. 27 (2003): 192 THE COMPARATIST engagement ofpolitics through the language of his texts to uncovering a "resistance " to politics that is itselfa political act. Engagement and Indifference is an inspired and inspiring collection. It will interest scholars concerned with the ethics and politics oflanguage, and will gamer a readership well beyond traditional Beckett scholarship circles. This book passionately argues that Beckett, through his iconoclastic and complex use and understanding of language, should indeed be considered a "political animal." Engagement andIndifference is a welcome and important addition to Beckett scholarship. Jeffrey R. Di LeoUniversity ofHouston-Victoria WTLLARD BOHN. Modern VisualPoetry. Newark: U ofDelaware P, 2001. 321 pp. Willard Bonn's Modern Visual Poetry, which traces the genre...