Beyond the Criterion of Genre

Abstract

Taking the expression Comment dire as its starting point, this essay argues that the phrase, a constant in Beckett's French oeuvre from the beginning, and the tide of his last published work, marks not only the emergence of what Alain Badiou has called the strophic poem in Beckett's late prose, but is also emblematic of the signal importance of Beckett's turn to French in the development of his poetic art. As the persistent trace of the intensive practice of translation that preceded this extraordinary move, comment dire furthermore points to the role played by translation in Beckett's becoming a poet.