3 research outputs found
Mis-Movements : The Aesthetics of Gesture in Samuel Beckett's Drama
This study explores Beckettâs use of physical movements in his plays as part of a strategy to escape the limits of semantic meaning and as an instrument of artistic expression. In a sense, the use of physical movements constitutes a phenomenological, heuristic âsolutionâ to the problem of presentation and representation that Beckett explicitly addresses already in the early 1930s. Drawing out the parallels between Beckettâs dramatic writing and phenomenology, this study seeks to establish the role perception plays in the creative task Beckett set out for himselfânamely the realisation of a new means of expression. While Beckettâs careful structuring and de-structuring of movement patterns have not gone unnoticed, the philosophical consequences of Beckettâs âassault against wordsâ, has not been fully appreciated. Beckett uses mis-movements not only to âdesophisticateâ words, but also to expose the means by which the effect of aesthetic perception is produced. This is not to say that mis-movements can be reduced to a set of clear significationsâaccording to Kant âthere is no formula that can produce the beautifulââbut to suggest that Beckett uses mis-movements to refocus the audienceâs attention on the realm of sensuous perception