Samuel Beckett, Linguist and Poetician: A View from "The Unnamable"

Abstract

Samuel Beckett demonstrated his sensitivity to language early in his career. In his 1929 essay Dante... Bruno. Vico..Joyce, his'remarks are not about the content of the works he discusses but about the ways in which language is used.2 Several points emerge from this critical essay. Beckett is sensitive to the materiality of language; i.e., he is aware not only of what language says but also of how language says. About Joyce's Work in Progress he writes: is not to be read or rather it is only to be read. It is to be looked at and listened to. His writing is not about something; it is that something itself.. . the Beauty of Work in Progress is not presented in space alone, since its adequate apprehension depends as much on its visibility as on its audibility (27-28). Beckett is also impressed with Joyce's ability to tune the language of his text to the content it expresses. When the sense is asleep the go to sleep.. . when the sense is dancing, the dance. Take the passage at the end of Shaun's pastoral... The language is drunk. The very are tilted and effervescent (27). Beckett adds that Joyce, Shakespeare, and Dickens treat words as something more than mere polite symbols. He elaborates as follows: