In this rich and perceptive study of some of the most haunting fiction written in the late twentieth century, Beckett critic Enoch Brater continues his investigation of the tension between text and script, silence and associational sound. Brater argues with great learning that Beckett's fiction, like his radio plays, demands to be read aloud, since much of the emotional meaning lodges in its tonality. Here the rhythm of Beckett's "labouring heart" finds its performative voice as the reader, now turned listener, collaborates in the creation of a musical composition that must elucidate the stillness of the universe. The Drama in the Text is a book about reciting and recounting, about how we know and what we know when we read a lyrical "text" crafted in prose but sounding like something else instead. Brater ranges across all of Beckett's work, quoting from it liberally, and makes connections mainly with other writers, but also with details drawn from the whole Western cultural heritage. The only book that deals thoroughly with Beckett's complete late fiction, Brater's study opens to a wide literary audience the difficult and elliptical nature of Beckett's mature prose style. For those readers who find Beckett's late fiction "impossible to follow let alone describe", this book will be an authoritative and persuasive guide, providing recognition, insight, and accessibility.
Beckett is acknowledged as one of the greatest playwrights and most innovative fiction writers of the twentieth century with an international appeal that bridges both general and more specialist readers. This collection of essays by renowned Beckett scholar Enoch Brater offers a delightfully original, playful and intriguing series of approaches to Beckett's drama, fiction and poetry. Beginning with a chapter entitled 'Things to Ponder While Waiting for Godot', each essay deftly illuminates aspects of Beckett's thinking and craft, making astute and often surprising discoveries along the way. In a series of beguiling discussions such as 'From Dada to Didi: Beckett and the Art of His Century', 'Beckett's Devious Interventions, or Fun with Cube Roots' and 'The Seated Figure on Beckett's Stage', Brater proves the perfect companion and commentator on Beckett's work, helping readers to approach it with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of the author's unique aesthetic. 'An eloquent, witty and erudite collection of essays that illuminates Beckett's drama and prose fiction from a number of complementary perspectives. Brater's precise explication of the interwoven tropes of language and mise-en-scène is combined with a fine grasp of the overarching structure of work ... to create a rich and suggestive series of reflections on Beckett's aesthetics.' - Robert Gordon, Professor of Drama, Goldsmiths, University of London
Beyond Minimalism explores Beckett's drama of the '70s and '80s, examining the ways in which play text and performance merge through the playwright's poetic idiom. Beginning with Not I and continuing through Catastrophe and What Where, Brater examines the plays not only as texts but also as theater pieces. Discussing the technical and aesthetic demands that productions like Footfalls and Rockaby make on actor, director, and spectator, Brater clarifies the essential relationship between Beckett's achievement in the context of the breakdown of genre, performance poetry, and the electronic intrusion of the recorded voice as a new theatrical convention. In the course of his analysis Brater demonstrates how Beckett's late style in the theater both continues and clarifies the dramatic lyricism that is the hallmark of earlier works such as Endgame and Waiting for Godot.
The content of this piece covers Enoch's journey through the multiple heavens, meeting the angels Gabriel and Michael, Enoch instructing Methuselah and his other sons on moral and ethical lessons, which he had written out in 366 books and which he eventually passes on to Methuselah and his other sons, so that his teachings wouldn't be lost and finally, Enoch's eventual assumption into heaven. This is essentially the sequel to the fabled Book of Enoch.
An informed study of the esteemed playwright's career evaluates his role in charting the landscape of the modern American theater, offering insight into his seminal dramas while tracing his life from his prize-winning student days through the successes of such pieces as Death of a Salesman.
The Book of Enoch is the most notable extant apocalyptic work outside the canonical Scriptures. It describes the fall of the Watchers, the angels who fathered the Nephilim (cf. the bene Elohim, Genesis 6: 1-2). The fallen angels went to Enoch to intercede on their behalf with God after he declared to them their doom. The remainder of the book describes Enoch's visit to Heaven in the form of a vision, and his revelations.
The Last Yankee highlights conflicts between men and women, between the working class and those who have left labour behind, and between exterior appearances and interior realities. Set in a New England state mental hospital in the early 1990s, The Last Yankee creates spaces in which the four characters grapple with definitions of health and of success. This scholarly edition is perfect for students. It features an extensive commentary on the context, themes, structure, style, language and characters, a survey of the play in production and questions for further study. Methuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. 'The Last Yankee reasserts Miller's unquestionable dominance of American drama...No other American playwright has had his range of experience and feeling; none has combined his magisterial moral judgement with his warm and forgiving sense of humour and his ability to inhabit completely, like Shakespeare or Ibsen, every character he creates...Miller writes with a sense of pain and laughter, with an understanding of the heart's endless struggle with the mind, which is characteristic of a writer on an unending journey of discovery.' Sunday Times
Samuel Beckett was one of the truly seminal and influential writers of the 20th century. The Nobel Prize for Literature awarded to him in 1969 symbolized his acceptance by the international community. He is undoubtedly a 'difficult' writer, and one of the virtues of Enoch Brater's concise literary biography is to give the general reader easier access to Beckett's work, particularly his later and more elliptical theatre and prose pieces. Professor Brater follows Beckett's career from the early days in Ireland, to the efflorexcence in France just after the Second World War, and beyond that to the unfolding of his success in the rest of the world following the universal appeal of his cryptic, moving play Waiting for Godot. In his analysis of the way Beckett approaches his work, Brater emphasises the Irish rhythms in his writing, and examines, at all stages, the intriguing relationships between his fiction and his compositions for theatre, film and television. Supported by a large selection of photographs, personal and public, this is a brilliant and informed study of Beckett's life and works.
Theatre Journal Since Enoch Brater's essential study of Samuel Beckett's life and works was originally published before Beckett died, the author has taken the opportunity of this paperback reprint to bring his subject up to date. Beckett was undoubtedly a difficult writer, and one of the virtues of this biography is to give the general reader easier access to all aspects of his work, particularly the more elliptic theater and prose pieces of his later years. Brater follows Beckett's career from the early days in Ireland to the efllorescence in his chosen expatriate home in France just after the Second World War, and beyond that to his success in the rest of the world as a result of the universal appeal of his cryptic, moving play Waiting for Godot. Brater emphasizes the Irish rhythms in Beckett's writing and examines, at all stages, the intriguing relationship between his fiction and his compositions for theater, film, and television. Supported by a generous selection of photographs, including many examples of Beckett productions in all parts of the world, this is the indispensable guide to understanding one of the literary geniuses of the twentieth century.
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Beckett is acknowledged as one of the greatest playwrights and most innovative fiction writers of the twentieth century with an international appeal that bridges both general and more specialist readers. This collection of essays by renowned Beckett scholar Enoch Brater offers a delightfully original, playful and intriguing series of approaches to Beckett's drama, fiction and poetry. Beginning with a chapter entitled 'Things to Ponder While Waiting for Godot', each essay deftly illuminates aspects of Beckett's thinking and craft, making astute and often surprising discoveries along the way. In a series of beguiling discussions such as 'From Dada to Didi: Beckett and the Art of His Century', 'Beckett's Devious Interventions, or Fun with Cube Roots' and 'The Seated Figure on Beckett's Stage', Brater proves the perfect companion and commentator on Beckett's work, helping readers to approach it with fresh eyes and a renewed sense of the author's unique aesthetic. 'An eloquent, witty and erudite collection of essays that illuminates Beckett's drama and prose fiction from a number of complementary perspectives. Brater's precise explication of the interwoven tropes of language and mise-en-scène is combined with a fine grasp of the overarching structure of work ... to create a rich and suggestive series of reflections on Beckett's aesthetics.' - Robert Gordon, Professor of Drama, Goldsmiths, University of London
In this rich and perceptive study of some of the most haunting fiction written in the late twentieth century, Beckett critic Enoch Brater continues his investigation of the tension between text and script, silence and associational sound. Brater argues with great learning that Beckett's fiction, like his radio plays, demands to be read aloud, since much of the emotional meaning lodges in its tonality. Here the rhythm of Beckett's "labouring heart" finds its performative voice as the reader, now turned listener, collaborates in the creation of a musical composition that must elucidate the stillness of the universe. The Drama in the Text is a book about reciting and recounting, about how we know and what we know when we read a lyrical "text" crafted in prose but sounding like something else instead. Brater ranges across all of Beckett's work, quoting from it liberally, and makes connections mainly with other writers, but also with details drawn from the whole Western cultural heritage. The only book that deals thoroughly with Beckett's complete late fiction, Brater's study opens to a wide literary audience the difficult and elliptical nature of Beckett's mature prose style. For those readers who find Beckett's late fiction "impossible to follow let alone describe", this book will be an authoritative and persuasive guide, providing recognition, insight, and accessibility.
Beyond Minimalism explores Beckett's drama of the '70s and '80s, examining the ways in which play text and performance merge through the playwright's poetic idiom. Beginning with Not I and continuing through Catastrophe and What Where, Brater examines the plays not only as texts but also as theater pieces. Discussing the technical and aesthetic demands that productions like Footfalls and Rockaby make on actor, director, and spectator, Brater clarifies the essential relationship between Beckett's achievement in the context of the breakdown of genre, performance poetry, and the electronic intrusion of the recorded voice as a new theatrical convention. In the course of his analysis Brater demonstrates how Beckett's late style in the theater both continues and clarifies the dramatic lyricism that is the hallmark of earlier works such as Endgame and Waiting for Godot.
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