Beckett and Sade

A systematic, chronological discussion of Samuel Beckett's interest in the works and person of Marquis de Sade.

Jean-Michel Rabaté (Author)

9781108726832, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 November 2020

75 pages
23 x 15 x 0.5 cm, 0.14 kg

Much has been written on Beckett and Sade, yet nothing systematic has been produced. This Element is systematic by adopting a chronological order, which is necessary given the complexity of Beckett's varying assessments of Sade. Beckett mentioned Sade early in his career, with Proust as a first guide. His other sources were Guillaume Apollinaire and Mario Praz's book, La Carne, La morte e il Diavolo Nella Letteratura Romantica (1930), from which he took notes about sadism for his Dream Notebook. Dante's meditation on the absurdity of justice provides closure facing Beckett's wonder at the pervasive presence of sadism in humans.

Introduction. The Sade Boom
1. The Guides: Apollinaire, Proust and Praz
2. From Murphy to Watt: Knotting pathology and theology
3. Sade's Unreason
4. Comment Sade: the Sadean Pedagogy of Love in How It Is
5. Sade's Dark Revolution
6. Eternally Reversible Catastrophes
Conclusion: Play, Pleasure, and Jouissance.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]