BASC70215 - The Art and Ends of Reading: The Novel: Reading as Kenosis: Reduced to Zero—Beckett, Three Novels

Course Description

With the Three Novels of Beckett, we reach a zero point in the development of the novel: here reading is no longer a matter a of self-enhancement but rather becomes a kind of kenosis (“self-emptying”). In the seminar, we look at a couple of seminal reflections on the nature of the novel— Lawrence, “The Novel” and Camus, The Rebel (selection), together with several essays by E.M. Cioran (sometimes regarded as Beckett’s philosophical counterpart) and Susan Sontag’s “Introduction” to his collection, The Temptation to Exist. In the tutorial, we read Beckett’s “three novels” (not to be called a trilogy): Malloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable, in addition to several notable critical commentaries—with a view to tracing not just the dissolution of the modern novel, but (perhaps) the end of Western individualism. For depressive characters with strong spirits—and also, perhaps, a sense of humor. Course Syllabus

Course Outline

Course Syllabus

Notes

Online registration closes Tuesday, September 19 at 5 pm CT.

No class November 25 (Thanksgiving week)

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