Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment
The relationship between Beckett and modernism remains a much-contested issue in Beckett studies and beyond. Beckett’s place in the modernist canon has been questioned both on the grounds of periodization and style, with the term ‘late modernist’ increasingly gaining ground in the more recent schola...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Book section |
| Language: | English |
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Palgrave Macmillan
2018
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| _version_ | 1797068381329817600 |
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| author | Van Hulle, D |
| author2 | Beloborodova, O |
| author_facet | Beloborodova, O Van Hulle, D |
| author_sort | Van Hulle, D |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The relationship between Beckett and modernism remains a much-contested issue in Beckett studies and beyond. Beckett’s place in the modernist canon has been questioned both on the grounds of periodization and style, with the term ‘late modernist’ increasingly gaining ground in the more recent scholarship. Without disputing Weller’s definition, this essay suggests a different approach by foregrounding Beckett’s trademark ‘fidelity to failure’ and his radical denial of the Leibnizian concept of theodicy. To explore the philosophical prehistory of what could be termed Beckett’s negative modernism, it first discusses the ‘epiphanic’ modernism of his more canonical predecessors and then traces the contours of Beckett’s own poetics of ‘pejorism’ (a term he coined in the margins of his copy of Olga Plümacher’s Der Pessimismus and in his ‘Whoroscope’ Notebook) to examine how his negative modernism is enacted in his works. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:09:57Z |
| format | Book section |
| id | oxford-uuid:51771523-2928-4fcb-869d-e64a62573205 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T22:09:57Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:51771523-2928-4fcb-869d-e64a625732052022-03-26T16:19:46ZNegative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactmentBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_1843uuid:51771523-2928-4fcb-869d-e64a62573205EnglishSymplectic ElementsPalgrave Macmillan2018Van Hulle, DBeloborodova, OVan Hulle, DVerhulst, PThe relationship between Beckett and modernism remains a much-contested issue in Beckett studies and beyond. Beckett’s place in the modernist canon has been questioned both on the grounds of periodization and style, with the term ‘late modernist’ increasingly gaining ground in the more recent scholarship. Without disputing Weller’s definition, this essay suggests a different approach by foregrounding Beckett’s trademark ‘fidelity to failure’ and his radical denial of the Leibnizian concept of theodicy. To explore the philosophical prehistory of what could be termed Beckett’s negative modernism, it first discusses the ‘epiphanic’ modernism of his more canonical predecessors and then traces the contours of Beckett’s own poetics of ‘pejorism’ (a term he coined in the margins of his copy of Olga Plümacher’s Der Pessimismus and in his ‘Whoroscope’ Notebook) to examine how his negative modernism is enacted in his works. |
| spellingShingle | Van Hulle, D Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title | Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title_full | Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title_fullStr | Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title_short | Negative modernism: Beckett’s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| title_sort | negative modernism beckett s poetics of pejorism and literary enactment |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vanhulled negativemodernismbeckettspoeticsofpejorismandliteraryenactment |