Bringing together seminal writings on Beckett from the 1950s and 1960s with critical readings from the 1980s and 1990s, this collection is inspired by a wide variety of literary-theoretical approaches and covers the whole range of Beckett's creative work. Following an up-to-date review and analysis of Beckett criticism, fifteen extracts of Beckett criticism are introduced and set in context by editors' headnotes. This is stimulating and innovative writing on the work of Samuel Beckett, representing the wide range of new perspectives opened up by contemporary critical theory.

Jennifer Birkett is Emeritus Professor of French Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Kate Ince is Reader in French Film and Gender Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Contents Acknowledgements Editors' Note Introduction Part One : Political Criticism 1. Theodor W. Adorno Trying to Understand Endgame 2. Stephen Watt Beckett by Way of Baudrillard : Toward a Political Reading of Samuel Beckett's Drama 3. Patricia Coughlan 'The Poetry is Another Pair of Sleeves' : Beckett, Ireland and Modernist Lyric Poetry Part Two : Literature/Philosophy 4. Georges Bataille Molloy's Silence 5. Maurice Blanchot Where now? Who now? 6. Leslie Hill The Trilogy Translated Part Three : Deconstruction 7. Steven Connor Voice and Mechanical Reproduction : Krapp's Last Tape, Ohio Impromptu, Rockaby, That Time 8. Thomas Trezise Dispossession Part Four : Psychoanalytic Criticism 9. Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari Disiring - Production : The Schizo's Stroll 10. David Watson The Fictional Body ; Le Depeupleur 11. Daniel Katz 'Alone in the Accusative' : Beckett's Narcissistic Echoes Part Five : Reader Reception 12. Wolfgang Iser The Art of Failure: The Stifled Laugh in Beckett's Theater Part Six : Semiotics 13. Carla Locatelli Comic Strategies in Beckett's Narratives Part Seven : Feminism/Gender 14. Julia Kristeva The Father, Love and Banishment 15. Linda Ben-Zvi Not I : Through a Tube Starkly Glossary Notes on Authors Further Reading Index