English 190

Other Readings and Media

Beckett, S.: Murphy; Beckett, S.: Watt; Beckett, S.: "First Love", "The Expelled," "The Calmative," "The End"; Beckett, S.: Molloy; Beckett, S.: The Unnamable; Beckett, S.: Waiting for Godot; Beckett, S.: How It Is; Beckett, S.: Company, Ill Seen Ill Said, Worstward Ho from Nohow On; Beckett, S.: Stirrings Still, Imagination Dead Imagine, some Fizzles from The Complete Short Prose: 1929—1989; Beckett, S.: Endgame, Not I, Happy Days, That Time and other short plays from the Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett

Recommended: Beckett, S.: Proust and Three Dialogues; Knowlson, J.: Damned to Fame: the Life of Samuel Beckett

Description

This course will cover both Beckett's prose and his theater. We will address Beckett both as an Irish writer and as a figure of international writing--he is, after all, a major French writer. Special attention will be paid to Beckett's experiments with language, to his attempts to work free of Joyce's influence and the resultant "minimalist" style of the last works. (The reading list is long because many works listed are quite short.)

English 190 replaced English 100 and 150 as of Fall '09. English majors may fulfill the seminar requirement for the major by taking one section of English 190 (or by having taken either English 100 or English 150 before Fall '09). Please read the paragraph on page 2 of this Announcement of Classes for more details about enrolling in or wait-listing for this course.