How It Was in Silling: Comment c’est and Les 120 journées de Sodome – An Intertextual Case Study

Abstract

This paper offers a comparative case study of Samuel Beckett's Comment c'est (1961)/ How It Is (1964) and the Marquis de Sade's 120 journées de Sodome (1799). How It Is contains one of the only two explicit mentions of the notion of ‘sadism’ in Beckett's œuvre, and a close reading of both ‘novels’ provides definitive evidence that this particular occurrence refers not merely to a vulgarised, generic notion of cruelty, but to Sade's text specifically, thus confirming the presence of a direct intertextual borrowing, and showing that Beckett was indeed rereading the 120 jounées (or his notes on Sade) while writing Comment c'est. This paper argues for a Sadean impact on the form, themes and aesthetics of Beckett's text by way of a comparative reading blending empirical and interpretative approaches, paying close attention to the narrative and fictional strategies at work in Beckett's reception of the Sadean universe. Maurice Blanchot's essay ‘La raison de Sade’ (1949), which Beckett knew well, is used as critical framework to interpret the Sadean dimension of Beckett's last ‘novel’. This allows for new insights into the writing of this difficult work and casts a great deal of light on the evolution of Beckett's exploration of violence and alterity.