Samuel Beckett and the Writers of Port-Royal

It has been observed that ‘the literary influences on Beckett have been far more important than has been acknowledged, and more important indeed, than the philosophical influences’ (Smith 2002: 3). The truth of this statement is evidenced by the description that scholars have given of Samuel Beckett’s relationship to seventeenth century French classicism. To date, critical interest has been limited for the most part to the figure of the philosopher René Descartes on the (fragile) grounds that Beckett was exclusively concerned with the Cartesian imperative of clarity and order, the fundamental dualism between body and mind, and Nominalism. Together with the assumption that Beckett’s vision was essentially Cartesian, his literary filiation with Pascal was suggested by critics, but only in terms of Beckett’s formal approach to the theatre. In his short article on En attendant Godot in 1953, the playwright Jean Anouilh was among the first reviewers to suggest that Beckett’s drama synthesizes the encounter between ‘classicism’ and a ‘modern’ form of art. It is well known that Beckett retained a lifelong admiration for Pascal – indeed, Pascal was one of his ‘old chestnuts’ (Knowlson 1997: 653). Little attention has been paid, however, to the originality of Pascal’s thought, the specific nature of his prose, and the impact these might have had upon Beckett’s mature work, especially the trilogy and the subsequent short prose. Yet, in the literary and philosophical context of post-war France, Beckett’s filiation with Pascal, their corresponding preoccupations, were evident to his contemporaries, who identified Pascal as an underlying presence in his works

Samuel Beckett et les écrivains de Port-Royal

This thesis examines Samuel Beckett’s understanding of seventeenth century French classicism. Thepreliminary analysis of genetic material, that allows the identification of Beckett’s primary andsecondary sources on Pascal and Racine, leads to a discussion of literary and aesthetic connectionsbetween the works of Beckett and the writers of Port-Royal. The philosophical backdrop of thatinfluence derives from the unique fusion of logic, eloquence, and passion manifested in the works of Racine, together with the conception of language in the Pensées and Arnauld and Nicole’s1662 Logique ou l’art de Penser. Literary theories on style and ‘modern literature’ that are contemporary to Beckett’s Trinity College lectures and early critical writings are examined here in the aim to define the different aspects of that intellectual filiation. A close reading of Beckett’s 1931 monograph on Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu follows the initial historiographical study, so as to show that the presence of French literary Augustinianism, manifested in the works of Sainte-Beuve, particularly his only novel Volupté, also underlies some of Beckett’s later prose. This includes the trilogy of French novels, Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable, and pieces belonging to the later period, particularly Le Dépeupleur/The Lost Ones, and Sans/Lessness. Beckett’s ‘syntax of weakness’, based on reduction and impoverishment, is inspired by the Augustinian pessimism towards language at work in the Logique. As such, the anthropological vision of Port-Royal anticipated Beckett’s definition of being as chaos, so much so that Pascal’s style crucially defined his use of the French language itself.L’objet de ce travail de recherche est de définir la relation de Samuel Beckett au classicisme français du dix-septième siècle. L’analyse préliminaire de différents manuscrits permet d’identifier les sources primaires et secondaires de ce dernier sur Pascal et Racine, et de mettre en avant, dans un second temps, les différentes correspondances, esthétiques et littéraires, entre l’œuvre de l’écrivain irlandais et Port-Royal. L’arrière-plan philosophique se définit par la conjonction de la logique, de l’éloquence et de la passion au cœur de l’œuvre racinienne, que l’on retrouve dans la rhétorique des Pensées, et l’analyse du langage dans la Logique ou l’art de Penser (1662) d’Arnauld et de Nicole. Les différents aspects de cette filiation intellectuelle sont établis à partir de l’analyse comparée des propos de Beckett dans ses séminaires sur la ‘modernité’ de Racine à Trinity College, Dublin, et des écrits théoriques de contemporains français parmi les plus illustres autour du ‘classicisme moderne’ et de ‘l’antirhétorique’. L’étude de l’essai sur Proust, écrit en 1931, suivra ce bilan historiographique afin démontrer que l’œuvre de Beckett se situe dans le prolongement de l’augustinisme littéraire français,qu’il connaissait au moins à partir des écrits et en particulier du roman de Sainte-Beuve, Volupté. En outre, les thèmes augustiniens parcourent l’œuvre plus tardive, notamment la trilogie de romans français, Molloy, Malone Meurt, et L’Innommable comme les textes courts tels que Le Dépeupleur et Sans. L’intertextualité entre les écrits de Pascal et ceux de Beckett, doublée d’une analyse stylistique, démontrera que la syntaxe appauvrie de l’œuvre beckettienne est profondément inspirée du pessimisme augustinien vis-à-vis du langage. En effet, Beckett, adoptant le français comme principale langue d’expression, choisit le style des Pensées comme l’un de ses modèles les plus fondamentaux