Challenges to representation in selected stage plays of Samuel Beckett

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis focuses on the ways in which Samuel Beckett challenges representation in certain of his stage plays. Representation is principally associated in this study with three different modes: the mimetic, the reflexive (or self-mimetic), and the ontological. The ontological is considered primarily as a process which problematizes the very concept of representation. Support for this argument is drawn from the existing body of scholarship on Beckett, and, as well, from the field of philosophy. Aristotle and Plato are cited, as are Nietzsche, Heidegger and Deleuze. The first chapter evaluates 'Waiting for Godot' as a direct challenge to traditional, Aristotelian mimesis. The aesthetic "canters" in which Vladimir and Estragon indulge themselves are analysed as reflexive games designed to avoid the ontological condition of "nothingness," which provides a foundation for the play. Chapter Two studies 'Endgame ' as an intensification of the representational challenges initiated in 'Waiting for Godot'. Hamm and Clov are identified as Vladimir and Estragon at a much later time, playing out the ritual of waiting as a last rite. In Chapter Three 'Krapp's Last Tape' is discussed as representing Beckett's most mimetic stage play, the one in which Beckett most closely maintains a stable relationship between the stage world and the external world. 'Play', the subject of the fourth chapter, is analyzed as a breakthrough play, decisively embracing the ontological mode of presentation. In this play Beckett attacks mimesis at the most foundational level to date. Chapter Five discusses both 'Not I' and ' Rockaby' as representing a final investment in the ontological process, leaving behind them all vestiges of representation. The Conclusion evaluates the evolution of this process, and applies the broad applications of the argument to other genres and mediums.Ph.D