Series Editor Preface Introduction Chapter One – Beckett and the Second World War Chapter Two – Beckett, War and the Everyday Chapter Three – Revolution and Revulsion: Beckett and Vichy France Chapter Four – Beckett and Irish Neutrality Chapter Five – The Language of Recovery: Beckett and France after the Liberation Chapter Six – Beckett and War Writing Epilogue Bibliography Index
An in-depth historical study of Samuel Beckett's experiences during World War II and the ways in which they shaped his remarkable literary work.
William Davies is a research fellow at the University of Reading. With Helen Bailey, he is the editor of Beckett and Politics (2020). He is an English editor of LONGITUDINES magazine.
[Beckett's] life between 1939 and 1945–6 has been well-documented
... but William Davies adds much detail, and his book is certain to
become the standard work on the subject. But he has done far more
than provide new information: he adds fresh strands to the
narrative. His book explores, for instance, the issue of Vichy’s
Révolution nationale and Beckett’s sarcastic depiction of the
Pétain paradox as a ‘poor old misled man and hero of Verdun’ (p.
78). This is followed by a brilliant exposé of Beckett’s
relationship to Irish neutrality and a fine analysis of his
greatest poem ‘Saint-Lô’ (1946).
*John Fletcher, Journal of European Studies*
William Davies’s Samuel Beckett and the Second World War is not
only an excellent book; it is a necessary one—a book that puts to
rest the notion, long operative in Beckett studies, that Beckett’s
oblique fiction, drama, and poetry deal with large abstract
philosophical questions rather than historical realities. Davies
documents, step by step, the subtle and complex treatment, in
Beckett’s writings, of the frightening politics of pre-war Nazi
Germany and the mendacities of Vichy France, of life during the
Resistance years, of his response to neutral Ireland, and finally
to the postwar tension between Gaullist humanism and the Marxism of
the intellectual Left, neither of which Beckett found palatable.
Davies’s is revaluative criticism at its most enlightening.
*Marjorie Perloff, author of The Edge of Irony: Modernism in the
Shadow of the Habsburg Empire*
William Davies’ Samuel Beckett and the Second World War argues,
persuasively, that Beckett’s mature work is set in the shadow of
war; although the texts might not refer to it directly, WW2 and its
aftermath are woven into the texture of Watt, Godot, and the
Trilogy. Davies traces the impact that conflict had on the
evolution of Beckett’s art, and its traces in the maimed, solitary
figures in his theatre and prose. Davies makes a compelling case;
that Beckett’s work is profoundly shaped by war, and its impact on
our idea of the human. This study will be a crucial part of
discussions on the relation between Beckett’s work and the
tumultuous events through which he lived.
*David Pattie, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Arts,
University of Birmingham, UK*
This deep and original re-examination of Samuel Beckett’s
experience in occupied France during World War Two is a revelation,
a book that opens so many new vistas onto Beckett’s creative
breakthrough, and the gestation of Waiting for Godot, Endgame and
the post-war prose. A stunning debut.
*Robert McCrum, Beckett Centre Creative Fellow, University of
Reading, UK*
Elegantly synthesizes a rich history of Vichy France.
*Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui*
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