Abstract
Summary The present article explores the relationship between Schopenhauer's philosophy of the will, Beckett's literary art (particularly drama) and the notion of the unrepresentable or the sublime as reformulated by Lyotard. An attempt is made to show that Beckett's work, which has been called postmodern, may be read as an exemplification of what Lyotard terms the modern or nostalgic sublime, recognizable by its allusion to unrepresentable “missing contents”. It is further argued at length that the “missing contents” in this case are the Schopenhauerian will, understood to be the unrepresentable, irrational, abysmal ground of being, and that an analysis of some of Beckett's work reveals a clear similarity between its “musical structure” and that of the metaphysical notion of the will.
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