gontarsky - beckett

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ontarski: Viva, Sam Becke

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Viva, Sam Becke, or Flogging t e Avant-Garde

By S. E. Gontarski

T e surge n g o a popu ar ty o Samue Bec etts wor or per aps ust t ecommerc a mage o Samue Bec ett, as aut or, part cu ar y ur ng t ecentenary year o 2006 s somet ng o a m xe ess ng. T s Bec ett sans

frontires, or, as t s ere terme , transnat ona Bec ett, re ects t e extens ono a part cu ar western European moment, Mo ern sm as t e avant-gar esnterrogat on or cr t que o t e cu tura an mora an ruptcy o ourgeo s Europe,

onto a pan-cultural stage where it is now embraced not only by thosecultures thatwere the object of its critique but also bycultures where the European momentbarely resonated, or if it resonated did so belatedly.1 Whether such responserepresents a victory for or signals a crisis in the arts is an issue that itself wantsinterrogation. Are we in the midst of a global triumph of the avant-garde orsimply witnessing its reduction to nostalgia or its assimilation into commerce

and so into kitsch? In the case of Beckett, 2006 witnessed the commercial andpopular embrace of a twentieth-century icon who happened to be not a rock starbut an esoteric Hiberno-Gallic poet. That is, the transnational popularity of theEuropean avant-gar e w t cu tures t at cou ar y ave generate suc ra casoc a pro uct on s e y or s an ec o o a para e p enomenon, Bec ett asconstructe soc a con, t e atter ev ent n t e grow ng num er o a us ons to

m or s wor n popu ar cu ture w ere e an s wor are o ten re uce toa ew mme ate y recogn za e em ems, c c s, or catc p rases, e trascans, ow er ats, or t e act o wa t ng tse . Suc popu ar ty, storte as t s,

t nge w t sent ment an sport ng t e trapp ngs o tsc , rema ns, nonet e ess,a measure o s cu tura mpact, part o s egacy as e s a sor e nto ance e rate not revere y a twenty- rst-century g o a economy, an so acommodity in the culture industry. As the narrator, Sam, perhaps, says of Watt,One wonders sometimes where Watt thought he was. In a culture park (77).

I opened the introductory essay to On Beckett: Essays and Criticism trying toassess that legacy:

On 13 April 1986 Samuel Barclay Beckett will mark his eightiethyear, an event that will be commemorated by internationalfestivals, performances and publications unprecedented inan aut ors et me. Suc attent on was ne t er soug t norpart cu ar y we come y Bec ett . . . ut s u y t e measure


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Journal of Becke Studies

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of his impact on the literature and culture of the latter halfof the twentieth century, on that period now regularly calledPostmodern. (1)

What I feared at the time was overstatement, of Becketts coming in from the coldin his lifetime, say, now appears more like understatement in the after Beckett.W tness t e open ng o Mar or e Per o s pres ent a a ress to t e Mo ernLanguage Assoc at on n Decem er o 2006, a year t at as come to e ca e t eyear o Bec ett:

T s year mar s t e centenn a o Samue Bec etts rt , ant e ce e rat ons aroun t e wor ave een a won er to e o .From Buenos A res to To yo, rom R o e Jane ro to So a,

rom Sout A r ca w ere Bec ett not perm t s p ays tobe performed until Apartheid was ended) to New Zealand, fromFlorida State University in Tallahassee to the University ofReading, from the Barbican Theatre in London to the PompidouCenter in Paris, from Hamburg and Kassel and Zurich to Aix-en-Provence and Lille, from St. Petersburg to Madrid to TelAviv, and of course most notably in Dublin, 2006 has beenBecketts Year. Most of the festivals have included not onlyperformances of the plays, but lectures, symposia, readings, art

exhibitions, and manuscript displays. PARIS BECKETT 2006,for example, co-sponsored by the French government and NewYor Un vers tys Center or Frenc C v zat on an Cu ture,as eature pro uct ons o Bec etts ent re ramat c oeuvre,

mounte n t eatres arge an sma a over Par s, ectures ysuc ma or gures as t e nove sts-t eor sts P ppe So ersan He ne C xous, t e p aywr g ts Fernan o Arra a an IsraeHorov tz, an t e p osop er A a n Ba ou. To roun t ngsout, n 2007 t e Pomp ou Center w ost a ma or ex t on

o an on Bec etts wor . . . . W o, n ee , more g o a anartist than Beckett? (652)

Many of these symposia and performances were financially supported not only byuniversities, foundations, and cultural arms of governments but by banks, airlines,and other corporate entities. One might well ask what drives such acceptance, suchinstitutional enshrinement? In the decades that separate 1986 and 2006, Beckettand his work have continued to accumulate commercial capital, and the corporateembrace of the avant-garde has by 2006 been long established. But the Modernist

avant-garde as a popular culture, as indeed the decorative art of our time, and thusthe avant-garde at the moment of its greatest appeal, simultaneously suggests itsegra at on, not t e nstant o ts ann at on, t e n erent cu tura cr t que

smot ere n mass em race. Does suc g o a acceptance represent a unt ngo t e res stance n erent n Mo ern sm an , or our purposes, n Bec etts


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work in particular? Roland Barthes had already anticipated such rehabilitationof Modernism in the 1960s: the bourgeoisie will recuperate [the avant-garde]altogether, ultimately putting on splendid evenings of Beckett and Audiberti (andtomorrow Ionesco, already acclaimed by humanist criticism) (69). The festivities

commemorating the year of Beckett may have been just such recuperation, such aseries of splendid evenings in the culture park.

Degra at on may e en em c, mme ate n t e arts, o course, as Bec ett weun erstoo , eg nn ng at t e moment o arts pass ng nto soc a spacew c ,ron ca y, s t e on y p ace w ere t cou ope to ave any mpact ut exposure

to an au ence, to t e pu c, e t er t roug pu cat on, ex t on, or per ormanceeg ns a process o commo cat on. W atever su vers ve or po t ca e ge a

wor may ave a n ts narrow context s trans orme nto commo ty w t

ncrease exposure, suc as Mat sse pr nts use to ecorate Las Vegas ote rooms,Salvador Dali neckties, or Ch Guevara T-shirts, radical politics reduced to fashionstatement, and such decorative tokens are readily available for Beckett as well.eBay sellers offer any number of Beckett T-shirts and signed photographs, forexample, and the recent special anniversary issue ofGQ, GQ 50 lists Beckett asamong the fifty most stylish men of the past fifty years (388). ForGQ Beckett is ahip trendsetter, a celebutant, one of the fashionistas of haberdashery, A timelessfigure, both ancient and modern, traditional and (whether he liked it or not) hip,he favored black (which ignited his blue eyes) and wool or tweed coats that could

have come from any number of centuries. Little matter that his wife bought hisclothes at the arch e puces in St. Ouen, forGQ Beckett wore Prada.

In our current economy Bec ett s apparent y su ta e or an recommen eto n ants. T e current we page Bec ett or Ba es s on y a n est, as tproc a ms, St mu ate your n ants nte ectua eve opment w t Bec ett orBa es, an ntro uct on to some o t e most mportantan most cu t

terature o t e twent et century. I t s never too ear y to rea to your a y, ts never too ear y to prepare er or gra uate sc oo . T e Gu nea P g T eatres

an mate Waiting for Go ot s a so as muc omage as travesty, w e t eMuppetss Monsterpiece Theaters production ofWaiting for Elmo seems to bewholly homage, the beginnings, perhaps, of Beckett for Babies.

Witness as well graffiti artist Alexander Martinezs stark community mural ofBeckett (used as a cover of this volume). It is located on Blenheim Crescent,just off the Portobello Road, the antique Mecca and tourist destination inLondons W11. Becketts face, admittedly deteriorating from the moment of itscompletion, something of a quick or instant ruin, dominates the side of a building

as if he were a local politician, a notable neighbor, or a local hero, which hemay be for the artsy Notting Hill set. The iconic mural, doubtless a heartfelttr ute, as, nonet e ess, a t e trapp ngs o ce e r ty, o a cu t o persona ty.Furt ermore, an enterpr s ng Ir s group comm tte to commerc a z ng gra tart t at ca s tse He ters e ter spotte t e mura , an t e mage s eature on


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a free postcard the group distributes all over Ireland. The postcard fails to list themurals precise location, nor has the group identified the painter (himself a notedgraffiti artist), whom they list as Unknown. While the group says of itself, wehave collected grafitti (sic), stencil art and murals wherever we have found them.

They continue to be printed at regularintervals and are still free to pick up fromc ty car rac s t roug out Ire an , onemay cyn ca y as , s t ere not a T-s rt or poster n t e o ng?

Bec ett a usua y res ste at east t emost overt commerc a exp o tat on o

s wor , or at east t at s t e mage e

mse wor e ass uous y to promote.In 1969, for instance, he refused to allowhis publishers to reissue (or re-cover)his work in order to capitalize on thenewly awarded Nobel Prize, but withinthe cultural field, to borrow a phrasefrom Pierre Bourdieus he Rules of Art:Genesis and Structure of the Literary

Field, such resistance is futile. Art is

commodity, and Becketts cultural capital altered with the award as productionmoved from small to large scale in response to increases in promotion andconsumpt on, muc o t at ncrease r ven y nst tut ons e un vers t es anue e , unsurpr s ng y, y Bec etts Amer can pu s er w o c rcu ate var ous

rea ers gu es to Bec etts wor . T e awar o t e pr ze a so spurre Grove Pressto ssue n 970 t e rst Co ecte E t on o Bec etts wor , n s xteen vo umes,an Bec ett was e g te w t t e resu t. Un er erent management, GrovePress went on to ssue a secon un orm e t on to mar t e 2006 centenary, a

an some, our-vo ume, oxe set, e te y Pau Auster, w t ntro uct ons y

contemporary terary um nar es E war A ee, Sa man Rus e, J. M. Coetzee,and Colm Toib . Both sets were designed as and have become collectors items,materialist trophies. In fact, one dare not break the shrink-film on and actuallyread the 2006 centenary edition for fear of devaluing the object. But many ofus recall that suggestions to Beckett that he might or ought to be selected forinclusion in theBibliothque de la Pliade evoked a disdainful sneer from himself.Such honorifics seemed to interest him little. More commercially, his Frenchpublisher has resisted such inclusion, or collections of Becketts work generally,as a devaluation of its own commercial capital. There is no French edition of the

three great French novels often misleadingly called The Trilogy, for instance.What he would have thought of being commemorated on Irish currency, on 10Euro s ver an 20 Euro go co ns, proo sets o w c were presente y t eIr s Am assa or to Japan to t e aut ors e r, E war , at t e To yoBor er essBec ettsympos um n Septem er 2006, s not cu t to mag ne.


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Such overt commodification is admittedly no more crass than Becketts imagebeing used to flog Apple computers in its solecistic Think Different campaign.Beckett joined an impressive Pantheon of twentieth-century icons such as MahatmaGandhi, Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon in the Apple promotion,

the campaign using the outsider status of these immediately recognizable icons incommercially brilliant ways, eliding the gap between art (or independent thought,or mora ntegr ty an commerce. But t at gap as ong een r ge y t e ateTwent et Century. Lawrence Ra ney traces t e ass m at on o art an commo ty,or art y commo ty, to t e soc a provocat ons o t e Futur sts etween 9 2-9 as t e art st a to come to terms w t t e new nst tut ons o mass cu ture

an assess t e r ear ngs on t e p ace o art n t e cu tura mar etp ace. Sucreassessment prec p tate a permanent co apse o a st nct ons etween artan commo ty, an e ecte t e percept e an rrevers e eve ng o ot

w t n t e s ng e an amorp ous category o commo ty 38-39 . In t e twent etcentury the artist need merely to wander across the bridge to the New Jerusalemof commerce. Call it, alternatively, the Elvis effect; that is, the sexually gyratingElvis who recorded Thats All Right [Mamma] at Sam Philipss makeshift SunStudios in Memphis in 1954 and who threatened and finally upset middle classrespectability was not the 21-year-old Elvis who played the Venus Room of theLas Vegas New Frontier Hotel in 1956, which billed him as The Atomic PoweredSinger, or the Elvis who came to the desert in 1963 to film Viva Las Vegaswith co-star Ann-Margret, or the Elvis who opened The International Hotel in Las

Vegas in 1969 and became a fixturein that desert city, the darling of theue- a re m e c ass. Bec etts

name as yet to appear on a LasVegas marquee ut t s wort not ngt at s most popu ar p ay s notWaiting for Go ot En game, utBreat , t at s, n a sense,Bec ett:T e Musica Its ongest run was as

t e opener, ca e Pre u e, to t eJacques Levy directed and KennethTynan conceived sextravaganza,Oh Calcutta, Calcutta, the imageand title adapted from the paintingby Camille Clovis Trouillesposterior odalisque, with its punon the French O quel cul tas,said cul prominently displayed.

Tynan marketed the thirty-secondplaylet by adding three words to theopen ng ta eau. Bec ett wrote, Fa nt g t on stage ttere w t m sce aneousru s , to w c Tynan a e , nc u ng na e peop e. Lea ng o w tBec ett, O Ca cutta prem re at t e E en T eater n New Yor C ty on 6 June


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1969 (the 65th Bloomsday). After a cautious tryout with thirty-nine previews, itopened, moving to the Belasco Theater on Broadway on 26 February 1971 whereit ran, and ran, and ran, with only slight interruption, until 6 August 1989. Finally,85 million people saw 1,314 performances during its eighteen-year run, making

it, incontestably, the most viewed Beckett play ever, a record unlikely to bebroken. Moreover, the musical was subsequently issued as an LP, was made into aHo ywoo m, an rema ns current y ava a e n CD, VHS, an DVD ormats,an , Ca cutta rece ve a u sprea p ctor a essay n P ay oy magaz neOcto er 969: 66-7 . O Ca cutta not p ay Vegas, ut t certa n y m g tave to ay g ven t at Las Vegas as ecome t e cu ture, we , t eatr ca , we ,

enterta nment cap ta o t e Un te States, not t e wor .

T e am oyant centenary ce e rat ons n Du n were t emse ves crowne y

anot er pop con, U2 ea s nger Bono, w o was preva e upon to pen anperform a tribute to Beckett and to (Gate Theatre impresario) Michael Colgan ina piece recorded for RT and called Waiting for Colgan. As Bonos monologuesuggests he was persuaded to publicly acknowledge his admiration for Beckettover dinners at The Unicorn with Colgan, presumably, buying bottles of Puligny-Montrachet, at 200 quid a bottle, according to Bono with his curious referenceto British slang. For Bonos participation Minister for Arts, Sport, and TourismJohn ODonoghue in turn rewarded him with a trophy, a signed first edition ofMurphy, the irony of the quid pro quo gesture obviously lost on the principals.

These Beckett celebrations were certainly big business.

T e App e campa gn, moreover, w e t p ays on, or o , popu ar cu turea so nvo es t e mess an c poss t es o t e eature cons. It esta s e are g ous moo , an t ere y reasserts aut or ty, an ncontesta e, un mpeac a e,n sputa e aut or ty, even as t e o ect o t e campa gn s un sgu se y

commerce. T e cu tura s ept c sm o t ese gures ecomes co on ze y t eourgeo s e, an t e cons t ere y va ate rat er t an nterrogate contemporary

cu ture an nst tut ons. T e mass-pro uce App e posters, moreover, ave

t emse ves ecome co ectors tems.

Beckett, of course, knew well the distinctions between Bohemia, the littleworld to which he aspired, and the big, quid pro quo world of the bourgeoisie,particularly that of Dublin, which he fled and castigated, almost viciously, in hisfirst novel. In France the distinction lay between perhaps the democratic caf andthe aristocratic salon. Most simply it was the difference between art and money, orthe relationship between art and money. But casting the issue as an exclusionarybinary is distortive. Beckett sought, indeed assiduously pursued, both. Bourdieu

would suggest that Becketts work (and the avant-garde in general) has alwayshad two different economies coexisting within it (145), that is, art is alwayscommo ty, an t e r se o t e transnat ona avant-gar e represents a s t nt at a ance towar ts more commerc a po e, towar t e commo ty cu turet at we o ten assoc ate w t postmo ern sm. Barney Rosset, Bec etts Amer can


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publisher, took on Beckett as an author in June of 1953 for his aesthetic andpolitical qualities, but he was also a commercial publisher who expected to earna return on his investment. He certainly saw both economies clearly, and built hisenterprise, which would feature Beckett and other writers of the European avant-

garde, as something of a second phase of Modernist publishing with emphases ona little, literary review, The Evergreen Review, and limited editions, author-signedart acts. He a so set a out encourag ng t e commerc a appea o t e avant-gar e n genera an Bec ett n part cu ar, se ng, or nstance, t e paper acGo ot for 1, a marketing strategy to broaden sales, particularly among the youngan part cu ar y at per ormances. Bec ett was ent us ast c a out suc mar etexpans on. But Rosset s mu taneous y pu s e m te , s gne , an num eree t ons o a o Bec etts wor , or nvestment, or t e co ectors mar et. AnRosset preva e upon Bec ett to part c pate n t e oo us ness an to wr te,

even not rect y, t e occas ona oo ur , n t s case or Bec etts r enRobert Pinget, whose novel The Inquisitory is called, apparently by Beckett,One of the most important novels of the last ten years. Admittedly, the prosesounds little like Beckett, but it is attributed to him on the cover of the hardbackedition. He thus became part of the Grove Press marketing strategy. What Rossetseems to have understood, instinctively perhaps, was that an anti-bourgeois artneeded substantial and broad bourgeois support, and that Becketts name alreadyhad considerable commercial cachet by 1966. That cachet increased substantiallywith the award of the International Publishers Prize in 1961 (which he shared

with Jorge Louis Borges) and which Grove Press engineered for its author, andthe Nobel Prize itself in 1969.

Step en Jo n D s n s stu y Samue Bec ett in t e Literary Ma etp ace:His Life as a Professiona Writer eta s w at e ta es to e Samue Bec ettscomp c ty n t e s ap ng an mar et ng o s own mage as an ascet c, ant -commerc a aut or. T at s, D s poses t e para ox t at Bec ett commerc a yexp o te s mage as an ant -commerc a art st. As e notes, us ng Bec ettsassoc at on w t t eIn ex on Censors ip as a pr me examp e:

Against those who treasure the idea that Beckett was some kindof latter day saint (as John Calder suggested with no apparentirony in an article A Saint Born on Good Friday, in TheIndependenton April 13, 1990), unique in his indifference tothe favour of the multitude [. . . ,] we assert that Becketts lifeas a writer is most productively seen in terms of the materialistapproach inaugurated by Virginia Woolf in A Room of OnesOwn (1929) and brought into the modern Academy by D. F.

McKenzie inBibliography and the Sociology of Texts (1985). Inthe context of the sociology of texts, Becketts participation int e campa gn orIndex on Censorship ma es sense, prov ngan exce ent ntro uct on to t e e an wor o an aut or w owor e extreme y ar to esta s a v a e terary persona,


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cultivate a loyal posse of supporters, posed for hundreds ofpublicity shots, signed numerous collectors editions of histexts, granted non-interview interviews at key moments in hiscareer, and carried the supposed burden of fame with impressive

adroitness and dignity. (5)

T e egree o Bec etts comp c ty n t e mar et ng o s own mage, part cu ar yor t e In ex on Censors ip campa gn w t ts compe ng mage o t e aut or

gagge , s st very muc n quest on, a t oug D ss text argues an assertst at comp c ty w t certa nty. T e mar et ng o Bec etts mage, now per apsrun rampant, w t Bec etts act ve or pass ve comp ance, s very muc o a p ece

w t t e arger ssue o t emar et ng o t e avant-gar e

an , n Bec etts case, t ealmost inexplicable numberand scope of celebratoryactivities that marked thecentenary of his birth in2006, the publicity for almostall of which was dominatedby his iconic face.

Speculation such as Dilkss,even when it is less thanconv nc ng an a s s ort oargument, pos ts poss t esnonet e ess, t eor zesSamue Bec ett as oneSamue Bec ett, a cu turaconstruct, create w t orw t out s comp c ty. I

suc a pos t on soun s elittle more than speculation,we need to remind ourselves

that to theorize is to speculate, and such speculation allows us to approachBecketts social production, his literary output, in ways hitherto unthinkable. Itaffords a set of questions made possible in, say, a space cleared by theory, asBecketts first full-length play, Eleutheria, cleared a space (almost literally) forwhat would develop as Beckettian theater.

The essays gathered in this volume, part of the transnational phenomenon,themselves grow out of a particular historical moment, out of an internationalco oqu um e at F or a State Un vers ty n Fe ruary 2006, Bec ett at 100:New Perspectives, w ere some 20 ectures were presente . T e sympos umprov e t e opportun ty or nterrogat ng t e Mo ern st agen a n a new century,


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in terms of its traditions, its politics, its economy, and its globalization, through theparticularities of one of its major authors. What is new for the twenty-first century,at the onset of Becketts second century, is the questions we ask, the questionswe can now ask about not only Becketts work itself, but its emergence from and

impact on particular social contexts or transnational environments, its participationin a global economy where the revolutionary edge of Modernist imagisme istrans orme nto postmo ern commo ty. T at s, w t suc wor w e a u at onan ere t e con erence organ zers an t e vo umes e tors ac now e ge t e r

comp c ty t ere seems prec ous tt e or Bec etts art to oppose n a new century.Has Bec etts art t us ost ts power to s oc as t s em race an ce e ratey g o a cu tures an app au e tera y n t e case o t eatre y ourgeo s

au ences n ate or post- n ustr a cu tures?

T e most vu nera e part o Bec etts oeuvre, vu nera e ecause o tsalliances, necessary as they are, with commerce, may be the theatre. And herethe question most pertinent may regard the degree of oversight or constraint theEstate exercises over artistic (theatrical) production. Of concern is not only theimmediately practical but the theoretical implications of such oversight, whichpromises an authentic Beckett; but such authenticity is always suspect, itselfbecoming a commodity to be sold, like distressed blue jeans. As I have noted ina recent essay:

The inevitable question that arises in the early years of the 21st

century, 50 + years after the premier ofEn attendant Godot,n t e 5t year o t e a ter Bec ett, s w et er Bec ett s t us

rap y ecom ng t eatr ca y rre evant. Put anot er way, w t eyear o ce e rat ons o Samue Bec etts wor n t e centenaryyear o 2006, nc u ng nnumera e pro uct ons, presuma ya aut or ze , e ts ea stone as we . Put yet anot er way, st ere a uture or Bec ett an per ormance? Can t e re- nventeaga n, an so w at m g t suc re nvent on oo e g ven t e

restr ct ons on per ormance mpose y t e ega e rs to t ework, heirs who function with all the roits dauthor, but noneof his flexibility. Must the avant-garde, already the parasite andproperty of the bourgeoisie, accept its own impotence, as RolandBarthes has asked, or worse bring about its own death? (69). Inaddition to their most publicized interventions into performance,the Executors have all but kept from the public the principal workof the final two decades of Becketts creative life, his continuationof the creative process, his full revisions of his dramatic texts.

These revisions are, of course, available in a limited capacity,in the very expensive editions of The Theatrical Notebooks ofSamue Bec ett, w c Bec ett mse a not on y aut or ze ut

nance as we , ut t e r cost severe y restr cts t e r ava a ty.Even un vers ty rar es res st suc expen ture un er current


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budgets. The Estate has refused permission to publish the revisedor acting texts separately as alternative editions or to re-issue theNotebooks in affordable, paperback editions. (436)

So whats new? The century, yes, of course. Our own critical perspectives, yes,perhaps, as we audaciously claimed in our symposium subtitle. But what ofBec ett mse ? Is t s transnat ona Bec ett t at we ce e rate a new Bec ett ora new century, or anot er Bec ett, t e ear er vers on renovate out o ex stence?

W at r ct ons resu t rom t econ unct on o t e ear y- tom - twent et -century western

uropean revo t, aga nsttra t on, aga nst art tse , an

more g o a cu tura econom es?Are these cultures misreading,misappropriating, or just mis-taking Beckett? And is theresomething to be gained in such

misreading, misappropriating, or mis-taking? Many of the essays that followpick up and interrogate those themes that ran through the symposium, and theirrepresentation here in print offers a new set of contexts. Gathered in an admittedlycelebratory volume, the essays break from conference taxonomies to engage each

other yet again and comment on each other from plural geographies and throughdiverse psyches. And although Beckett has left the building, symposia like thate at F or a State Un vers ty an t ose su sequent y e transnat ona y

a ow us to ret n Bec ett aga nst an overt commo ty cu ture, an even per apsproc a m, n t e ear y years o t e twenty- rst century, w t t e rest o t e wor ,with or without irony, Viva! Sam Beckett.

Notes

. One o t ose e ate resonances s certa n y ev ent n Japan, w ose post-warem race o western European cu ture was accompan e y res stance not on y rom t osee cate to t e tra t ona pre-war cu ture ut y a post-war generat on w o too on t e

ro e o more ra ca po t cs an an avant-gar e sens ty n t e arts.. My t an s to contr utor R na K m or sen ng me t s postcar .

3. Bec etts sen up o Du n sa on cu ture s, o course, eature nDream of Fair toMiddling Women ( 99-2 ) an t e s ort story er ve rom t, Wet N g t.

. Su stant a expense was save y e m nat ng t e pro uct on p otos rom t ear cover e t on an re uc ng t e s ze o t e 95 pu c ty p otograp o Bec ett, t eatter or g na y pu s e nterna y (e m nate ) an on t e ac cover (re uce n s ze).

5. Muc o t s s eta e n D s.

Works Cited

Bart es, Ro an . W ose T eater? W ose vant-Gar e? Critical Essays Trans. R c arowar . Evanston: Nort western UP, 972. 67-70.


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Bour eu, P erre. he Rules of Art: Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field. Stan or :tan or UP, 996.

D s, Step en Jo n, Portra ts o Bec ett as a Famous Wr ter. Journal of ModernLiterature 29. (2006): 6 -88.

. Samuel Beckett in the Literary Marketplace: His Life as a Professional Writer.

npu s e ts.Gontars , S. E. Re nvent ng Bec ett. amuel Beckett at 100. Spec. ssue o Modern

Drama XLIX. (w nter 2006): 27-50.---, e . On Beckett: Essays and Criticism. New Yor : Grove, 986.Grot e, C r stop er an L se LePage. Gu nea P g T eatre: Wa t ng or Go ot. 200 .

ttp: www.musearts.com cartoons p gs go ot. tm >.Mao, Doug as an Re ecca L. Wa ow tz, e s. Bad Modernisms. Dur am: Du e UP,

006.Per o , Mar or e. Pres ent a ress 2006: It Must C ange.PMLA 22:3 (2007): 652-

62.Rainey, Lawrence. Institutions of Modernism: Literary Elites and Public Culture. New

aven: Ya e UP, 998.

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