Samuel Beckett And The Visual

This book outlines Beckett's passion for the visual arts as he developed his signature style between the 1930s and 1970s.

The first comprehensive presentation of Samuel Beckett's use of the musical and visual arts, this collection addresses important question that extend beyond the literary domain, including the function of art and music in Beckett's narrative and theatrical writings; Beckett's direct and indirect "collaborations" with composers and painters; and his work for television, radio, and film.

This book, first published in 1999, addresses Beckett’s visual and musical sensibilities, and examines his visionary use of such diverse modes of creative expression as stage, radio, television and film, when his medium was the written word. The first section of the book focuses on music; the second part analyses the visual arts; and the third part examines film, radio and television. This book uncovers aspects of his thinking on, and use of the arts that have been little studied, including the nonfigurative function of music and art in Beckett’s work; the ‘collaborations’ undertaken by composers, painters and choreographers with his texts; the relation of his literary to his visual and musical artistry; and his use of film, radio and television as innovative means and celebration of artistic process.

This is the first monograph to analyse Beckett’s use of the visual arts, music, and broadcasting media through a transdisciplinary approach. It considers how Beckett’s complex and varied use of art, music, and media in a selection of his novels, radio plays, teleplays, and later short prose informs his creative process. Investigating specific instances where Beckett’s writing adopts musical or visual structures, Lucy Jeffery identifies instances of Beckett’s transdisciplinarity and considers how this approach to writing facilitates ways of expressing familiar Beckettian themes of abstraction, ambiguity, longing, and endlessness. With case studies spanning forty years, she evaluates Beckett’s stylistic shifts in relation to the cultural context, particularly the technological advancements and artistic movements, during which they were written. With new examples from Beckett’s notebooks, critical essays, and letters, Transdisciplinary Beckett evidences how the drastic changes that took place in the visual arts and in musical composition influenced Beckett and, in turn, were influenced by him. Transdisciplinary Beckett situates Beckett as a key figure not just in the literary marketplace but also in the fields of music, art, and broadcasting.

Exploring Beckett's relationship with the visual arts and its influence on his creative expression

The National Gallery of Ireland was one of Samuel Beckett's favorite Dublin haunts. He whiled away many hours there and was particularly drawn to works by Perugino, Poussin, Rembrandt, and Rubeens. Encouraged by his friend Thomas MacGreevy, who later became director of the Gallery, Beckett developed a life-long passion for art. Essays trace Beckett's interest in art from its origins in the National Gallery, through his admiration for the work of Jack B. Yeats, to his art criticism and associations with contemporary artists including Bram van Velde, Alberto Giacometti, and Avigdor Arikha. The book concludes with the proceedings of the round table discussion "Samuel Beckett and the Visual Arts." Contributors include Nicholas Allen, John Banville, Riann Coulter, Dellas Henke, Charles Klabunde, James Knowlson, R(c)mi Labrusse, David Lloyd, Breon Mitchell, Lois Oppenheim, Peggy Phelan, and Susan Schreibman.

Beckett was deeply engaged with the visual arts and individual painters, including Jack B. Yeats, Bram van Velde, and Avigdor Arikha. In this monograph, David Lloyd explores what Beckett saw in their paintings. He explains what visual resources Beckett found in these particular painters rather than in the surrealism of Masson or the abstraction of Kandinsky or Mondrian. The analysis of Beckett's visual imagination is based on his criticism and on close analysis of the paintings he viewed. Lloyd shows how Beckett's fascination with these painters illuminates the 'painterly' qualities of his theatre and the philosophical, political and aesthetic implications of Beckett's highly visual dramatic work.