Book contents
- Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature
- Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Ethical Cosmopolitanism and Shakespeare’s Othello
- Chapter 3 History and the Conscription to Colonial Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s Rural Novels
- Chapter 4 Ritual Dramaturgy and the Social Imaginary in Wole Soyinka’s Tragic Theatre
- Chapter 5 Archetypes, Self-Authorship, and Melancholia
- Chapter 6 Form, Freedom, and Ethical Choice in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- Chapter 7 On Moral Residue and the Affliction of Second Thoughts
- Chapter 8 Enigmatic Variations, Language Games, and the Arrested Bildungsroman
- Chapter 9 Distressed Embodiment and the Burdens of Boredom
- Chapter 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 9 - Distressed Embodiment and the Burdens of Boredom
Samuel Beckett’s Postcolonialism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2021
- Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature
- Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Ethical Cosmopolitanism and Shakespeare’s Othello
- Chapter 3 History and the Conscription to Colonial Modernity in Chinua Achebe’s Rural Novels
- Chapter 4 Ritual Dramaturgy and the Social Imaginary in Wole Soyinka’s Tragic Theatre
- Chapter 5 Archetypes, Self-Authorship, and Melancholia
- Chapter 6 Form, Freedom, and Ethical Choice in Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- Chapter 7 On Moral Residue and the Affliction of Second Thoughts
- Chapter 8 Enigmatic Variations, Language Games, and the Arrested Bildungsroman
- Chapter 9 Distressed Embodiment and the Burdens of Boredom
- Chapter 10 Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Beckett’s Murphy in Chapter 9, we find that the eponymous character’s quest for self-validation is an aspect of an autistic spectrum disorder and that it is his relentless attraction to patterns that draws him to Mr. Endon. In the game of chess between Endon and Murphy, it is the former’s refutation of any kind of analogy that spins Murphy out of himself and ultimately leads, in an absurd but also interconnected concatenation of small steps, to his death by a gas explosion in his garret. As in other works of Beckett, our attention is rivetted on the absurd semiotic of language itself as an aspect of hermeneutical delirium. This is closely tied to Murphy’s aporetic speech that is also part of his autistic syndrome. The failure to find a reflection of himself in the mind of Mr. Endon is what ultimately undoes Murphy’s sense of self-integration and triggers his rapid unravelling.
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- Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature , pp. 264 - 297Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021