Beckett Between the Words: Punctuation and the Body in the English Prose

Abstract

This essay considers how some of Beckett's most important concerns are explored or expressed through his use of punctuation. Focusing on the English prose, the problems of starting and stopping, the representation of silence, and the individuation and disintegration of voices are considered. In particular it is argued that punctuation, by remembering the physical presence of absent speakers, is important to the way Beckett's writing situates itself ambiguously between the abstract and the bodily. Beckett's practice is examined through close readings, and set against a theoretical backdrop going back to Aristotle.