Flaubert, Joyce and Beckett: the stoic comediants
Editorial DALKEY ARCHIVE PRESS
Mainland Spain
- Publisher DALKEY ARCHIVE PRESS
- ISBN13 9781564783806
- ISBN10 1564783804
- Type BOOK
- Pages 106
- Published 2005
- Bookbinding Rustic
Flaubert, Joyce and Beckett: the stoic comediants
Editorial DALKEY ARCHIVE PRESS
Mainland Spain
Book details
An enlightening study of three writers, Flaubert, Joyce and Beckett: The Stoic Comedians begins with an explanation of the effect of the printing press on books. The "book as book" has been removed from the oral tradition by such features as prefaces, footnotes, and indexes. Books have become voiceless in some sensethey are to be read silently, not recited aloud. How this mechanical change affected the possibilities of fiction is Kenner's subject. Each of the three featured authors approached this situation in a unique, yet connected way: Flaubert as the "Comedian of the Enlightenment," categorizing man's intellectual follies, Joyce as the "Comedian of the Inventory," with his meticulously constructed lists, and Beckett as the "Comedian of the Impasse," eliminating facts and writing novels about a man alone writing.