Representation of Self in Samuel Beckett’s novels Murphy and Watt

Bc. Veronika Apolenová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Tato práce si klade za cíl identifikovat počátky vývoje literárneho štýlu postaveného na myšlenkách zlyhání, neznalosti a abstrakce, ke kterému Samuel Beckett inklinoval ve své literární i jiné umělecké tvorbe. Na analýze dvou románu z jeho raní tvorby, Murphy a Watt, práce poukazuje na spůsob, jakým se Beckett snaží vyspořádat s možnostmi zobrazení prožívaní subjektivních zkušeností svých postav a navodit tak v čtenáři pocit proměnlivosti důvery v jejích schopnost udržet víru ve vlastní “já” a jeho stabilitu.

Abstract:

On the analysis of his two early novels Murphy and Watt, this thesis aims to identify the inception of Samuel Beckett’s lifelong striving for the aesthetics of failure, impotence and abstraction in his literary and other artistic output. The work demonstrates the ways in which his literary treatment of the subjective experience in the aforementioned novels works to invoke the sense of instability of a coherent self in the reader, which was to become one of the main topics of his later, especially post-war, work. The analysis is based on close reading of the novels and the use of secondary sources, such as the biography Damned to Fame by Jameson Knowles, the study of Beckett’s interwar notes Beckett’s Books by Matthew Feldman and Chris Ackerley’s annotations to the novels.

Keywords

Samuel Beckett, Murphy, Watt, Self, Representation, Modernism, Consciousness

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 28. 5. 2019

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 19. 6. 2019
• Supervisor: prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc.
• Reader: M.Phil. James Joseph Little, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Teacher Training for Secondary Schools / Upper Secondary School Teacher Training in English Language and Literature