Postcognitivist Beckett

A reassessment of Beckett's alleged Cartesianism using the theoretical framework of extended cognition.

Olga Beloborodova (Author)

9781108708616, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 June 2020

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.4 cm, 0.124 kg

The aim of this Element is to offer a reassessment of Beckett's alleged Cartesianism using the theoretical framework of extended cognition – a cluster of present-day philosophical theories that question the mind's brain-bound nature and see cognition primarily as a process of interaction between the human brain and the environment it operates in. The principal argument defended here is that, despite the Cartesian bias introduced by early Beckett scholarship, Beckett's fictional minds are not isolated 'skullscapes'. Instead, they are grounded in interaction with their fictional storyworlds, however impoverished those may have become in the later part of his writing career.

Introduction
1. Survey of Beckett Criticism
2. Extended Cognition in Beckett's Prose
Conclusion

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