Searching for company. The universe of Samuel Beckett\'s late prose

Author(s)

Lívia Bueloni Gonçalves

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2014-10-02

Examining board members

Fabio Rigatto de Souza Andrade; Marcelo Pen Parreira; Adriano Schwartz; Ana Helena Barbosa Bezerra de Souza; Cláudia Maria de Vasconcellos

• Advisor: Fabio Rigatto de Souza Andrade

Abstract

This dissertation presents a reading of Samuel Beckett´s so-called second trilogy in prose comprising the works Company (1980), Ill Seen Ill Said (1981), and Worstward Ho (1983), with special focus on Company. These texts belong to the authors late prose, characterized by a mixture of genres and the intense questioning of both language and literary representation. While highlighting the specificities of this period, we argue that among all the experiments of the Beckettian narrator there is a mechanism that seeks for company within the very narrative a theme present in many of Becketts works, which is further stressed by the publication of Company. The need for company through the act of narrative, however, unfolds in an ambiguous and conflicted manner. (AU)