‘In the dim light’: Archaeoastronomy in Beckett's Ill Seen Ill Said

Abstract

Beckett's Ill Seen Ill Said begins with the protagonist in a position where ‘she sees Venus rise followed by the sun.’ This opening indicates the direct relationship between the narrative and astronomical phenomena of Venus rising as the morning star to mark the winter solstice and the alignments of megalithic structures built in correlation to this event. This paper traces the ways in which Ill Seen Ill Said uses the process of astronomy, the mapping of stars and planets, coinciding with megalithic stone structures, studied through the discipline known as archaeoastronomy, as a device for the creation of the narrative.