Overview
- Draws on political theory, affect theory, and cognitive literary theory
- Explicates the positive and paradoxical role of humor and anger in Beckett’s work
- Highlights the linguistic and intertextual complexity of Beckett’s work and responses to his work
Part of the book series: New Interpretations of Beckett in the Twenty-First Century (NIBTFC)
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About this book
The Affects, Cognition, and Politics of Samuel Beckett’s Postwar Drama and Fiction: Revolutionary and Evolutionary Paradoxes theorizes the revolutionary and evolutionary import of Beckett’s works in a global context defined by increasingly ubiquitous and insidious mechanisms of capture, exploitation, and repression, alongside unprecedented demands for high-volume information-processing and connectivity. Part I shows that, in generating consistent flows of solidarity-based angry laughter, Beckett’s works sabotage coercive couplings of the subject to social machines by translating subordination and repression into processes rather than data of experience. Through an examination of Beckett’s attack on gender/ class-related normative injunctions, the book shows that Beckett’s works can generate solidarity and action-oriented affects in readers/ spectators regardless of their training in textual analysis. Part II proposes that Beckett’s works can weaken the cognitivedominance of constrictive “frames” in readers/ audiences, so that toxic ideological formations such as the association of safety and comfort with simplicity and “sameness” are rejected and more complex cognitive operations are welcomed instead—a process that bolsters the mind’s ability to operate at ease with increasingly complex, malleable, extensible, and inclusive frames, as well as with increasing volumes of information.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Contagion and Accessibility: Revolutionary Beckett
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Front Matter
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Script Evaluation and Enrichment: Evolutionary Beckett
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Cristina Ionica teaches English, Film, Writing, and Professional Communication courses at Fanshawe College in London, Canada. Her research has been published in ESC: English Studies in Canada, Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, MLS: Modern Language Studies, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory, and Horror Studies.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Affects, Cognition, and Politics of Samuel Beckett's Postwar Drama and Fiction
Book Subtitle: Revolutionary and Evolutionary Paradoxes
Authors: Cristina Ionica
Series Title: New Interpretations of Beckett in the Twenty-First Century
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34902-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-34901-1Published: 22 January 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-34904-2Published: 22 January 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-34902-8Published: 21 January 2020
Series ISSN: 2945-6797
Series E-ISSN: 2945-6800
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 286
Topics: Twentieth-Century Literature, British and Irish Literature, Drama, Contemporary Theatre, Fiction