Tracing the Creative Influence of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Psychology Notes’: The ‘Three Novels’ and Krapp’s Last Tape

Sammendrag Avhandlingens hovedargument er at notatkorpuset om psykologiske og spesielt psykoanalytiske emner som Samuel Beckett utarbeidet i 1934-1935 mens han var i terapi hos Wilfred Bion representerer en sentral og vedvarende innflytelse på hans litterære verk. Den umiddelbare anvendelsen av disse psykologinotatene i arbeidet med romanen Murphy er velkjent, men avhandlingen gjennomgår denne opprinnelige kreative bruken på nytt for å vise hvordan Beckett etablerer en form for parodisk overdrevet bruk av det lærebokaktige språket i mange av kildene som han hentet sine notater fra. Dette indikerer en kritisk avstandstagen fra psykoanalysen som disiplin, som også førte til en plutselig avslutning av det terapeutiske forholdet til Bion in 1935. De to første kapitlene i avhandlingen diskuterer konteksten for komposisjonen av psykologinotatene og diskuterer en rekke kreativt sentrale tematikker for Beckett. En ledetråd for diskusjonen er at Becketts tilnærming til det psykoanalytiske lærebokspråket fungerte både tiltrekkende og motstandsgivende for ham som forfatter. På den ene siden finner vi både i Becketts tekster og i psykoanalysen en fascinasjon for det avskyvekkende, mens på den annen side kan vi spore hos Beckett en bevisst motstand mot psykoanalysens forpliktelse til å søke mot helbredelse, kontroll og meningsfullhet. Becketts tekster iscenesetter en avvisning av det psykoanalytiske språket som et feilslått medium for å skrive om selvet, gjennom sin ironiske undergraving av psykoanalysens kognitive, autoritetsbaserte og terapeutiske utgangspunkt. Implikasjonene av dette utvikles i avhandlingen gjennom en nærlesing av romanene Molloy, Malone meurt/Malone Dies and L’Innommable/The Unnamable, og det korte teaterstykket Krapp’s Last Tape. I denne lesningen behandles Becketts psykologinotater som genetisk kildemateriale som fortsatt ble anvendt kreativt lenge etter de opprinnelig ble komponert. Avhandlingen tar utgangspunkt i en mest mulig empirisk etterprøvbar og manuskriptgenetisk tilnærming til kildene, med utstrakt bruk av Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project og andre arkivressurser som støtte for sin argumentasjon. Men et pragmatisk forhold til behandlingen av tekstlig innflytelse som går utover det som kan føres sikre bevis for er også nødvendig, for en viss grad av usikkerhet er umulig å unngå. Likevel fastslår avhandlingen at en nylesning av disse verkene av Beckett med utgangspunkt i hans egne psykologinotater kan både utvide og korrigere fokuset i den eksisterende faglitteraturen. Videre har det kritiske fokuset og opptreningen som denne avhandlingen presenterer også et potensiale til å kunne generere en ny litteraturkritisk tilnærming til alle verkene i Becketts karriere som ble skrevet etter psykologinotatene.Abstract This study argues that the corpus of notes on psychological and especially psychoanalytic topics composed by Samuel Beckett in 1934-1935 during his therapy with Wilfred Bion represents a crucial and continuous creative influence on his literary work. While the immediate use of the ‘Psychology Notes’ in the writing of Murphy is well established, it is revisited here to suggest that this initial creative deployment is characterized by a parodic over-indulgence in the ‘textbook’ language of the sources Beckett was drawing on. This indicates a critical distancing from the discipline of psychoanalysis that also manifested itself in a sudden disruption of his therapy with Wilfred Bion in 1935. Drawing on the original context of the composition of the Notes, and developing a taxonomy of creatively important themes for Beckett, the first two chapters of the thesis trace a formative attraction-repulsion ambivalence in Beckett’s approach to the use of psychoanalytic textbook language in his writing. On the one hand, there is a shared obsession with ‘abjection’ between Beckett’s texts and the discipline of psychoanalysis, whereas on the other, the commitment to cure, control and meaning in psychoanalysis is being resisted in Beckett’s texts. Beckett’s later texts stage the rejection and failure of the psychoanalytic language as medium of writing the ‘self’ by ironically subverting its cognitive, authoritative and therapeutic purposes. This argument is developed through detailed close readings of the ‘Three Novels’ (Molloy, Malone meurt/Malone Dies and L’Innommable/The Unnamable) and the short play Krapp’s Last Tape, treating the ‘Psychology Notes’ as genetic source material that continued to be actively deployed long after its initial composition and creative impact. While the thesis is based on an empirical, genetic approach, making extensive use of the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and other archival sources, its approach is also pragmatic in its approach to influence, recognizing that conclusive evidence of intertextual relationships is not always possible to establish. Nonetheless, re-reading these Beckett works with the Notes to hand can both expand upon and correct the emphases of previous scholarship on these texts. Ultimately, the critical focus and training provided by this thesis is therefore intended to provide a scholarly tool for re-engaging all of Beckett’s post-Notes work.Doktorgradsavhandlin

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