Vegetating Life and the Spirit of Modernism · 2020. 1. 12. · Joseph Anderton, ‘Vegetating Life...
Transcript of Vegetating Life and the Spirit of Modernism · 2020. 1. 12. · Joseph Anderton, ‘Vegetating Life...
JosephAnderton,‘VegetatingLifeandtheSpiritofModernism’Modernism/modernity,JohnHopkinsUniversityPress
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VegetatingLifeandtheSpiritofModernism
inKafkaandBeckett
Modernism/modernity,JohnHopkinsUniversityPress(post-printversion)
At an acute theoretical level, belatedness and recommencement are inherent to
modernism’spursuitofthenowandthenew.Asanartisticsensibilitydedicatedtothe
ephemeral and elusive flux of modernity, modernism can be conceived as a
contradictory spirit that enacts an auto-defeating and therefore auto-sustaining rapid
cycle of attempt and failure, purpose and obsolescence. In this essay I argue that the
unachievable, self-perpetuating aspiration that modernism contains is refigured as
despondent, latemodern ‘vegetating life’ in theworks of two limit-modernists, Franz
KafkaandSamuelBeckett.Despiteproducing thebulkof theirmostmemorablework
over30yearsapart,bothKafkaandBeckettrepeatedlyoffercomparableexpressionsof
endlessness–throughpurgatorialnarrativeconditionsencapsulatedbythecontinuous
recontextualizationofdeictic language–thatresonatewiththe inevitablebelatedness
and creative recommencement of modernism. Although deictic language is not
especiallyfrequentinKafkaorBeckett,itacquiresgreatsignificanceintheirevocations
of‘vegetation’,anunderexploredstateidentifiedbycriticssuchasGeorgLukács,Walter
Benjamin andTheodorAdorno that encompasses a series of relatedbinaries: activity
andstasis,desireandpassivity,lifeanddeath.InKafka’sproto-formandBeckett’slater-
form, each writer conveys what Shane Weller calls the ‘paradoxical experience of
endlessending,anexperiencethatisalientotheEnlightenmentconceptionofprogress
whichunderlinesthepowerfulmythofmodernity,andthatliesattheheartofthelate
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modernistconceptionofhistory’.1Throughportrayalsofsuch interminablevegetative
states, Kafka anticipates and Beckett epitomises a virtually exhausted latemodernist
life, undergoing the throes of modernism’s drive for novelty and immediacy while
subject to the pervasive negativity and failure that replaces the possibility of
achievement. Ifmodernism’s intrinsic tardiness fuels its inventionof ever-new forms,
the lateness in late modernism manifests as futility, burden and nostalgia. The
vegetating life evident narratively and linguistically in Kafka’s ‘The Hunter Gracchus’
(1917/1931)andBeckett’sTextsforNothing(1950-51),forexample,demonstratesthe
purgatorial conditionofmodernismhabitually startinganewand converts it into late
modernism’sprotractedending.
TheSpiritofModernism
It is common for the critical distillation of discrepant modernisms to derive an
elementaldynamicspirit thatgoesback to itsetymological roots:modern,modo, ‘just
now’.Inhisessay‘Modernity:AnUnfinishedProject’,firstpublishedinGermanin1981,
Jürgen Habermas portrays modernism as a persistent rebellion kicking against the
normativepast:‘Withvaryingcontent,theterm“modern”againandagainexpressesthe
consciousnessof anepoch that relates itself to thepastof antiquity, inorder to view
itself as the result of a transition from old to the new’.2 As an agent of change,
modernism appears necessarily retrospective to legitimately and repeatedly disturb
sedimented cultural traditions. Likewise, in an earlier 1967 essay, ‘The Culture of
Modernism’,IrvingHowediscernstheintensereactivityofmodernism,arguingthat‘no
matterwhatimpasseitencountersinitsclasheswiththeexternalworld,modernismis
ceaselessly active within its own realm, endlessly inventive in destruction and
improvisation’.3 Howe accentuates the energetic versatility of themodernist spirit to
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the point of infinitude, underlining its restless originality in defiance of shifting
historical contexts. More recently, Gabriel Josipovici summarises his book,Whatever
HappenedtoModernism?(2010),withtheclaimthatmodernism‘willalwaysbewithus,
for it isnotprimarilya revolution indiction,ora response to industrialisationor the
First World War, but is art coming to a consciousness of its limitations and
responsibilities’.4 Rather than a specific aesthetic, historical or ideological
understanding,Josipoviciarticulatestheenduringspiritofmodernism:adiffusesense
ofmodernistartasanaggressive,resistantdynamic.Hispresenttensephrase,‘coming
to’,suggeststhatmodernismisacontinualprocess,oneofreflectionandrenewal.Susan
Stanford Friedman describes such conceptions of ‘modern/modernity/modernism’ as
the ‘relational definition’ which ‘stresses the condition or sensibility of radical
disruption and accelerating change wherever and whenever such a phenomenon
appears, particularly if it manifests widely. What is modern or modernist gains its
meaning throughnegation, as a rebellion againstwhatoncewasorwaspresumed to
be’.5 To extend this premise to its logical conclusion, the constant production of a
cultural past would guarantee that the spirit of modernism is always emergent and
potentiallylimitless.
However, as early as 1929, modernism’s knell was sounding. ‘Demands for
ceaseless artistic innovation–Pound’s injunction to “make itnew”–were starting to
soundold’6;aneditorialinTheTimesproclaimedthe‘EclipseoftheHighbrow’in1941,
opining‘thatageispast,thoughsomeofitsghostsstillwalk’7;andby1955,theoutright
‘Decline ofModernism’ had occurred: no longerwould arts be ‘brought down to the
levelofesotericparlourgames’.8HarryLevin’s1960essay‘WhatWasModernism?’and
MauriceBeebe’s1974response‘WhatModernismWas’bothreflectedonmodernismin
thepasttense,abletodefineabygoneartwithmore ‘detachmentandobjectivity’.9 In
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Howe’sworkfromthe late1960sandearly70s,modernismisaddressedasawaning
sensibilitysufferinganundignifieddemiseasaresidual,inauthenticcopyoftheradical.
Howe asserts that ‘there areworks inwhich the outermannerisms and traits of the
modernarefaithfullyechoedormimickedbuttheanimatingspirithasdisappeared—is
thatnotausefulshorthandfordescribingmuchofthe“advanced”writingoftheyears
aftertheSecondWorldWar?’10Similarly,althoughHabermasrecognisesmodernityas
an ‘unfinished project’, he also deems it a haunting semblance: ‘The impulse of
modernity […] is exhausted; anyonewho considers himself avant-garde can read his
owndeathwarrant.Although theavant-garde isstill considered tobeexpanding, it is
supposedlyno longer creative.Modernism isdominantbutdead’.11 ForPeterBürger,
writing in 1984, ‘newness’ was always a characterisation ofmodernism as a kind of
shallowavant-gardism,not false in its focuson the intenselyexperimentalper se, but
lacking the ‘criteria for distinguishing between faddish (arbitrary) and historically
necessarynewness’.12Suchdeclarationsamounttoa‘declensionnarrative’thatattests
to howmodernism’s failsafe ethos of rupture and renewal hasmatured into aweary
historicalzeitgeistinthesecondhalfofthetwentiethcentury.13Itsfatewassealedasa
victimofinescapableassimilationaccordingtoStanfordFriedman,whorecognises‘the
impossibilityofperpetualdisruptionorrevolutionaschangebecomesinstitutionalized.
Whatbeginasmultipleactsofrebellionagainstprevailinghegemoniesbecomethrough
their very success a newly codified, often commodified system’.14 By virtue of its
reactivity to the normative, however, the bizarre suspicion remains that a brand of
fundamentalistmodernismisabletodealwithitself,orpreviousiterationsofitself,as
the status quo. Indeed, modernism can promise a paradoxical form of survival by
committingsuicideorperformingaself-conductedpost-mortem.Twenty-firstcentury
criticalstudiesonmodernism’s ‘futures’and‘legacies’ inpost-1945andcontemporary
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literaturegivecredence to itspotential tocontinueasasensibility thatoutlives itself,
eitherasarevivedprospectorinheritedpast.15
Itisapparentfromthisbriefoverviewthatthehistoricaldeclineofmodernismis
inconflictwiththeenduringspiritofmodernismasareactive,resistantsensibility.The
very notion of decline seems anathema to modernism as ‘a drama of perpetual
remaking’,bestunderstoodas‘aperformativeprocessratherthanameanstoanend’.16
However, these contradictory narratives – one of constant renewal, one of gradual
decline – reveal the possibility of detecting a confluence of activity and stasis, or an
enlivening and deadening duality, in the inveterate spirit of modernism. Without a
teleologicaltrajectory,modernistart iscondemnedtoimmediacy,turningovervoided
productsandrestoredpurpose inastateofperpetualbelatedness, that,whenviewed
panoramically, appears to have stagnancy engrained in its very flux. As Stanford
Friedman expresses: ‘Like the noun modernity, the adjectival form slips and slides
betweenmeanings rooted in thepossibility and impossibilityof “making itnew”’.17A
double take on Habermas’s and Howe’s formulations also show that, for all of its
investment in the new, their modernism appears to get locked into a stale pattern,
foreveroutmoding itself.Habermas recognises that ‘thedistinguishingmarkofworks
whichcountasmodernis“thenew”whichwillbeovercomeandmadeobsoletethrough
thenoveltyofthenextstyle’.18Theonwardmarchofmodernismmeansitonlyseemsas
new as its most vanguard front, so that the trailing remainder must appear
anachronistic,astaticrelicbycomparison.Althoughthisinsistenceoninnovationmight
strikeoneasthepreconditionofitstimelinessandrelevance,asaprofoundlytransient
form,modernismseemstoanticipate itsdesolationand inefficacy. Indeed,Howegoes
furtherthanHabermastoclaim:
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modernismdoesnotestablishaprevalentstyleofitsown;orifitdoes,itdenies
itself, thereby ceasing tobemodern.Thispresents itwith adilemmawhich in
principlemaybebeyondsolutionbut inpractice leads to formal inventiveness
and resourceful dialectic—the dilemma that modernismmust always struggle
but never quite triumph, and then, after a time,must struggle in order not to
triumph.Modernism need never come to an end, or at least we do not really
know, as yet, how it can orwill reach its end. […]. The essence ofmodernism
reveals itself in the persuasion that the true question, the one alone worth
asking,cannotandneednotbeanswered; itneedonlybeaskedoverandover
again,foreverinnewways.19
Modernism’sanimationprinciple restsuponanannulmentof its recentself, akindof
neutralisation of its productivity, which casts modernist art into a compulsive but
unavailing existence, which I elaborate on below as ‘vegetating life’ in Kafka and
Beckett.Notwithstanding thedangerof reducingmodernism to a ravenous consumer
appetite for the latest fashion, the common account ofmodernism as an avant-garde
sensibility,assketchedabove,isdrivenbyaforlornimperative,aseachnewapproach
negates the last, to reveal at once a stimulating and numbing process. The ‘spirit’ of
modernism,then,isanappositephraseinitsevocationofbothatenaciouslifeforceand
spectrallackofsubstance.
VegetatingLife:Lukács,BenjaminandAdornoonKafkaandBeckett
The enlivening-deadening duality of modernism can be related to Georg Lukács’s,
Walter Benjamin’s and Theodor Adorno’s uses of the pertinent word ‘vegetate’, or
derivatives,todescribetheworksofKafkaandBeckett,aswellasBeckett’sowncritical
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evolutionoftheword‘vegetation’inrelationtopurgatoryinDanteAlighieriandJames
Joyce. In Georg Lukács’s chapter ‘The Ideology of Modernism’ from The Meaning of
ContemporaryRealism(German1957/English1962),heidentifiesseveral limitations
in modernist literature that contribute to an essentially static conception of human
societyandhistory,despiteitsostensibledynamism.Lukács’scriticismsofmodernism
include the excessive preoccupations with form, style and technique that govern
narrativeandcharacter;thefocusonasocialandahistoricalsubjectivityoverobjectivity
thatreducessubjectstosuperficialdevelopmentsandincoherentexperiences;andthe
perverseaccentuationofpsychopathology,primitivismandallegoryat theexpenseof
perspective. Whereas contemporary bourgeois realism ‘has assumed change and
developmenttobethepropersubjectofliterature’,Lukácsseesanoverallsenseoffixity
inmodernist psychological narratives that swing between the phenomenology of the
presentandrecollectionsofthepast.20ReferringinparticulartoJoyce,henotesthat‘the
perpetuallyoscillatingpatternsofsense-andmemory-data,theirpowerfullycharged–
but aimless and directionless – fields of force, give rise to an epic structurewhich is
static,reflectingabeliefinthebasicallystaticcharacterofevents’.21Despitetherestless
movementandmanicenergyofmodernistinteriority,Lukácsarguesthatitamountsto
a rather myopic and curiously conservative approach, without social context or
historicalprogress.
Lukács’s forceful dichotomy of realism and modernism, ‘dynamic and
developmental on the onehand, static and sensational on the other’ iswell known.22
Less commonplace is his recourse to the language of purgatory to describe this
differenceinrelationtoKafkaand,inmorescathingterms,Beckett.LikeRobertMusil,
Kafka summons ‘the ghostly aspects of reality’, according to Lukács, whereby even
‘realistic detail is the expression of a ghostly un-reality, of a nightmareworld,whose
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functionistoevokeangst’.23Thisunrealityisintensifiedwhenadoptingtheperspective
of ‘an abnormal subject’, or, as in Beckett’s case, ‘an image of the utmost human
degradation–anidiot’svegetativeexistence’.24Forbothwriters,Lukácsconcedes,the
immersion intostrangepsychologicalworlds isassociatedwith ‘lifeundercapitalism’,
which is ‘often rightly, presented as a distortion (a petrification or paralysis) of the
human substance. But to present psychopathology as a way of escape from this
distortionisitselfadistortion’.25Hecontinues:
This implies the absolute primacy of the terminus a quo, the condition from
which it is desired to escape. Any movement towards a terminus ad quem is
condemnedtoimpotence.Astheideologyofmostmodernistwritersassertsthe
unalterability of outward reality (even if this is reduced to a mere state of
consciousness) human activity is, a priori, rendered impotent and robbed of
meaning.26
Lukácsperceivesaviciouscyclicpattern,withmodernistsindulginginthesymptomsof
the problem, descending into the psychic disorders produced by the simultaneously
agitating and desensitising repetition compulsions of modern capitalist modes of
production. This generates a host of purgatorial conditions that Lukács touches on,
includingthe‘ghostly’,‘vegetative’,‘petrified’,‘paralysed’and‘impotent’,althoughthese
emergemoreconcretelyasanidiosyncratic,secularformofpurgatoryinthehandsof
Benjamin,AdornoandespeciallyBeckett.
InLukács’sreferenceto ‘vegetativeexistence’ inparticular,heinvokesmultiple
relatedmeanings.Theadjective, ‘vegetative’, featuresinAristotle’sphilosophytorefer
to‘onecomponentoftheirrationalpartofthesoul,namelythecomponentresponsible
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forsimplegrowthandalteration’.27Thevegetativesoulistheentiretyofplantlifeandit
isanaspectthathumanandnon-humananimalspossessamongothers.Thisbasiclife
spirit of plants, added to their stillness, immobility and periods of dormancy,means
‘they“onlyseemtolive”’,andyet,reducedtoalmostnon-being,‘afterwestriplifeofall
its recognizable features, vegetal beings go on living’.28 In the parlance of the French
‘poet of things’, Francis Ponge, the imperceptible but persistent biology of vegetation
‘givesbirthtolivingcrystals,cristauxvivants’,asifstimulatingorganicactivityininert
mineralsubstances.29Throughsuchassociationswithplants,theword‘vegetate’canbe
employedtodifferentiatebetweenbareexistenceandmeaningfullife,suchasinColley
Cibber’s1740memoirApologyforLifeofColleyCibber: ‘TheManwhochusesneverto
laugh…seemstomeonly in thequietStateofagreenTree;hevegetates, ‘tis true,but
shallwesayhelives?’.30Indeed,inGerman,vegetierencanliterallytranslateas‘toeke
outabareexistence’.31Withtheadventofpsychoanalysis,particularly1930sReichian
psychotherapy or ‘vegetotherapy’, ‘“vegetative” life refers to the “vegetative nervous
system”. In English this is called the autonomic nervous system, that which governs
basic, involuntary functions. Ithasnothing todowithplant life,despite theawkward
resemblance to “vegetables” in English’, according to James Strick.32 This modern
connection to the nervous system gives rise to terms for relatedmedical conditions,
such as ‘persistent vegetative state’ or ‘vegetative dormancy’.33 Despite Strick’s
rejection, these names for nervous functions and chronic disorders of consciousness
encourageparallelswith thebasic functionsof thevegetativesoulandtheembedded,
passive,relativelydiminishedlifeofplants,totheextentthatmedicalresearchershave
sought more neutral terms, such as ‘unresponsive wakefulness syndrome’, to avoid
pejorativeassociationsandpreservehumandignity.34
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However, in Lukács’s account of modernism overall, he actually finds a
concomitanceofostensibleactivityandveritableinertia,whichevokesthepurgatorial
dualmeaningalreadysecretedintheverb‘vegetate’,asatermthatincludesvitalityand
torpidity,livelinessandlifelessness.Itmeans‘tosprout;togerminate;toproducenew
growth’aswellas‘toleadadull,monotonouslife,withoutintellectualorsocialactivity;
to live or spend time in an unchallenging, inactive way’.35 Together, these meanings
indicatethat‘tovegetate’istobesubjecttoanongoingbutemptylife,caughtbetween
renewalandrepetition. It isadualitythatsmacksofSigmundFreud’sspeculationson
competing life and death instincts in his 1920 essay ‘Beyond the Pleasure Principle’,
although Lukács strongly disagrees with attempts to ‘explain man’s social relations
fromhisindividualconsciousness(orsubconsciousness)’,asanapproachthat‘turnsthe
essence of things upside down’.36 It is apparent that Lukács considered the
psychopathologyofmodernistliteraturetosharethesamesystemicerrorsasFreudian
psychoanalysis.Andso, thestand-offbetweenactivityand inertiaunderlyingLukács’s
assessmentofJoyce,aswellasKafkaandBeckettbyimplication,resembleswhatFreud
expresses as ‘a kind of fluctuating rhythmwithin the life of organisms: one group of
drives goes storming ahead in order to attain the ultimate goal of life at the earliest
possiblemoment, another goes rushing back along theway in order to do it all over
againandthusprolongthejourney’.37Itisaparadoxicallyvitalandstagnatingrhythm
that Lukács finds foundational to modernism wholesale, as he accepts the flux of
individualsenseimpressionsandloadedsubjectiveexperiencewhiledetectingastatic,
unchanging macrocosm. Lukács’s ‘vegetative existence’ effectively identifies both
modern conceptions of subjectivity and modernist aesthetics: it connotes a medical
assessment of psychological suspension, which, given modernism’s focus on the
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individualanditsmergingofformandcontent,filtersintothepurgatorialdynamicsof
theartwork’sdeepstructure.
ThephrasethatLukácsusestodecryBeckettspecificallyisonethatbothWalter
BenjaminandTheodorAdornoevokeaschampionsofKafkaandBeckett. Inhis1934
essay for the 10th anniversary of Kafka’s death, Benjamin compares the holders of
power in Kafka (court judges and castle secretaries) to the depressive Russian
statesman Grigory Potemkin, ‘who vegetates, somnolent and unkempt, in a remote,
inaccessible room’. Benjamin then asks: ‘Why do they vegetate? Could they be the
descendantsofthefiguresofAtlasthatsupportglobeswiththeirshoulders’or‘itisjust
that themost commonplace things have theirweight’.38 Under either the pressure of
great responsibility or the gravity of everyday details, such figures of authority are
renderedvacantandinert.Whilethesemystifyingpowersencapsulatethedull,inactive
sideofvegetatinglife,theassistantsormessengersinKafka’sstoriesconveytheactive
counterpart,throughtheircontingencyandliminality.Benjaminlikenstheassistantsor
messengers to ‘Gandharvas’:messengersbetweengodsandhumans inHinduism,and
spirits between death and rebirth in Buddhism.39 Such characters are ‘beings in an
unfinishedstate’, ‘nonehasa firmplace in theworld, firm, inalienableoutlines’, ‘none
that has not completed its period of time and yet is unripe, none that is not deeply
exhaustedandyet isonlyat thebeginningofa longexistence’.40Benjaminrecognises
the purgatorial incompleteness of vegetating life in this striking depiction of lives
seemingly enervated and not completely terminated. In their imprecise ontological
state,thesebeingsareprecarious,nebulousandcondemnedtobe.Benjamingoesonto
enlist another echelon of character, the ‘fool’, as part of this ‘indefatigable’ troop,
referringspecificallytothosein‘ChildrenonaCountryRoad’(1910).41Theinclusionof
fools,alongsidefiguresofpower,messengersandassistantsmeansthatfromthecastles
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andcourtsallthewaydowntobewilderedvictimssuchasK,JosefKandGregorSamsa,
vegetating life infectsKafka’sentireworld, inbothvacuously inanimateandaimlessly
wanderingforms.
Benjamin’s evocations of vegetation add a mythic, spiritual scale to Lukács’s
structuralandpsychopathological ideas.Heelaborates further stillwithaestheticand
artisticcomponents,drawingontheinfinitemeaningofgestureandtheprovocationof
failure.Benjaminwritesthat ‘Kafka’sentireworkconstitutesacodeofgestureswhich
surely had no definite symbolic meaning for the author from the outset; rather, the
author tried to derive such a meaning from them in ever-changing contexts and
experimental groupings’.42 Lukács co-optsBenjamin’s point here todeprecateKafka’s
‘transcendentalNothingness’,citingthetransferabilityofmeaningarisingfromthedeep
ambiguity of modernist allegory.43 This proliferation of potential meaning and
defermentofstablemeaningowingtovaryingcontextsandjuxtapositionsgeneratesan
open, unsettled and unlimited spirit. The fact that many of Kafka’s stories were
abandoned as unfinished fragments and that he instructed his executorMax Brod to
destroyhispapersonhisdeath‘saysthatthewritingsdidnotsatisfytheirauthor,that
heregardedhiseffortsasfailures,thathecountedhimselfamongthoseboundtofail’.44
ThedissatisfactionandinevitabilityoffailurethatBenjaminseesinKafkacanindicate
anunyieldingobligationtotry,whichalsoimpliesvegetativedynamics,notleastthose
foundinmodernism’sowncreativerecommencement.
Benjamin’sfriendandcriticAdornoalsoemploystheterm‘vegetate’inhisessay
‘Trying to Understand Endgame’ (1961), in which he defends Beckett’s abstract
modernismasanappropriateartisticresponsetothe‘damagedlife’ofapost-Holocaust
world that is effectively the culmination of late capitalism’s logic of ‘abstraction,
identification, exchange and use which characterises all human relationships and
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relationshipstotheworld,andthatallowsfornospontaneityordifferencetoarise’,as
Alistair Morgan puts it.45 The protracted denouement that Hamm and Clov suffer in
Endgame(1957)atteststoanerainwhich‘[h]umankindcontinuestovegetate,creeping
alongaftereventsthateventhesurvivorscannotreallysurvive,onarubbishheapthat
has made even reflection on one’s own damaged state useless’.46 In this instance,
vegetating life refers to the human condition in the aftermath of a global
epistemological and ontological event. People are not really living as they oncewere
andarethereforenotsurvivorsinthecommonsense;althoughtheyliveon,theyareso
thoroughlytransformedastobedisparatefromtheirpriorselves.Thepowerofthought
is also impacted, as the catastrophic event ensures it exempts itself from
comprehensionbyleavingpeopleunabletorationaliseorrepresentwhathashappened
lucidly.ThesubtitletoAdorno’s1951bookMinimaMoralia,‘reflectionsfromdamaged
life’,underlinesthisaffronttophilosophicalexamination.47Thechoiceof‘from’,rather
than ‘on’, shows that all sense-making reflections are now impaired. Only the
fragmented,incoherentstateofthe‘reflections’themselvesgivesanyindicationofwhat
theyattemptedtoreflectonorabout.Equally,Adorno’sepigramtothattext,Ferdinand
Kürnberger’s‘lifedoesnotlive’,repeatsoneofthedualitiesofvegetation,exposingthe
differencebetweenlifeproperandbareexistence.AsMorganexplains, ‘implicit inthe
phrase“lifedoesnotlive”istheassumptionthattheverb“tolive”impliesafullersense
oflifewhicheitherliesrepressedbeneaththeexistenceofalifethatdoesnotlive,oras
a suppressed possibility within this deadened form of existence’.48 For Adorno,
vegetatinglife,whichentailsthedecayofexperience,theimpairmentofreflectionand
theimmersioninculturalandphilosophicalruins,isthemaladyofmodernity.
Yet, in contrast to Lukács, it is crucial for Adorno that this malady spreads
through modernist art too, particularly post-Holocaust late modernism. In Adorno’s
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essayon‘Metaphysics’,henotes: ‘thecheapjibethatBeckettcannevergetawayfrom
urns,refusebins,andsandheapsinwhichpeoplevegetatebetweenlifeanddeath–as
they actually vegetated in the concentration camps – this jibe seems to me just a
desperate attempt to fend off the knowledge that these are exactly the things that
matter’.49ReferringtoBeckett’sPlay(1963),EndgameandHappyDays(1961),Adorno’s
comment highlights the human potential to suffer limbo on earth, as an interstice
betweenanimateand inanimate,between lifeanddeath.Hisconceptionofvegetating
life after Beckett, then, intensifies the condemned existence that he already saw in
Kafka.Adornowritesinhis‘NotesonKafka’:
In the concentration camps, the boundary between life and death was
eradicated. A middle ground was created, inhabited by living skeletons and
putrefyingbodies,victimsunabletotaketheirownlives,Satan’slaughteratthe
hopeof abolishingdeath.As inKafka’s twistedepics,whatperished therewas
thatwhichhadprovidedthecriterionofexperience–lifelivedouttoitsend.50
Adornotakestheabsenceofanendpoint,or‘terminusadquem’,thatLukácscriticised
inKafkaandBeckett’snon-progressive,dystopianmodernism,andrefiguresitasaform
ofethicallyengagedliteraturecongruoustothetimes.Therefore,damagedlife,ofwhich
vegetation is a part, is not merely an escape from the social and historical concrete
worldofrealism.Itistheubiquitousproductofthecontextthatartmustalsoimbibe.In
thestrongestterms,anythingelsewouldnotbearemedy;itwouldbeatravesty.
Adorno’suseof ‘vegetate’ todescribeanendless limbobetween lifeanddeath
recalls Beckett’s own earlier use of the term ‘vegetation’ in his 1929 essay, ‘Dante…
Bruno. Vico.. Joyce’, written to support Joyce’s ‘Work in Progress’ (later Finnegans
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Wake).BeckettcomparesDante’stemporaryandJoyce’spermanentformsofvegetation
to relate twoconceptionsofpurgatory.Hewrites: ‘In theone there isanascent from
realvegetation–Ante-Purgatory,toidealvegetation–TerrestrialParadise:intheother
there is no ascent and no ideal vegetation’.51 Beckett notices that Dante presents a
progressivemodelfromrealtoidealvegetation,whichfollowsthepurgatoryoutlinedin
theCatechismof theRomanCatholicChurch. In thisrendering, ‘purgatoryoffered the
soulapost-mortemsecondchancetosatisfythedebtsduetoitsredeemerforitsbodily
andspiritualsins’.52Aspiritualsortingprocessidentifiesthepenitentsoulsrequiredto
undergothispurifyingperiodofvegetationowingtotheirunpaidvenialsins.Thisisa
processthatisconveyedelsewhereinChristianscripturethroughaharvestinganalogy,
althoughtheBibledoesnotexplicitlysupportthenotionofaprovisionalafterlifebefore
admittance to heaven. Chapter 13 of the Gospel ofMatthew, the Parable of Tares or
Weeds, teachesof theangelsdividinghumanity intoeither theheaven-boundgoodor
thehell-boundevil.Afteramansowedhis fieldwithgoodseed, ‘hisenemycameand
sowedtaresamongthewheatandwenthisway’.Ondiscovery,themanannounces:‘Let
bothgrowtogetheruntiltheharvest,andatthetimeofharvestIwillsaytothereapers,
“Firstgathertogetherthetaresandbindtheminbundlestoburnthem,butgatherthe
wheatintomybarn”’.Theactofseparatingthegoodwheatfromtheunwantedtares(to
burn inanactofpurification)brings tomind theproverb ‘separating thewheat from
thechaff’,oritsvariation,thegrainfromthehusks.
The harvesting analogy presents an image of divine judgement that Beckett
knowswellasaraisedProtestantandutilisesoccasionallyoverthecourseofhiscareer,
most famously in theopeningpartofKrapp’sLastTape throughthereferencetoa39
year-old Krapp ‘Sat before the fire with closed eyes, separating the grain from the
husks’.53TheimagetakesitsmostBeckettianforminhis1951novel,MaloneDies, the
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middle text of his post-war trilogy. A bed-ridden Malone passes away time telling
himself stories, including the narrative of Macmann, who has ‘a cast-iron vegetative
system’and ‘sat and laydownat the leastpretext andonly roseagainwhen theélan
vitalorstruggleforlifebegantoprodhiminthearseagain’.54Despitelivingonafarm,
Macmann’sabilitytoidentifythewheatfromtheweedsdesertshim:‘suddenlyallswam
before his eyes, he could no longer distinguish the plants destined for the
embellishmentofthehomeorthenutritionofmanandbeastfromtheweedswhichare
saidtoservenousefulpurpose,butwhichmusthavetheirusefulnesstoo,fortheearth
tofavourthemso’.55Macmannisnotdamninginhisassessmentofweedsbecauseheis
unable to distinguish between plants types and assumes the ubiquity ofweedsmust
evidence their usefulness somehow. This more inclusive, indiscriminate stance
presumably applies to the symbolic equivalent of weeds, the lost souls, which
problematisesthebinaryjudgementofheavenorhellandraisestheprospectofamore
complex spectrum ranging from good to evil, valuable to worthless, that tallies with
Beckett’s evocations of a purgatorial middle ground in his corpus that confuses the
boundariesoflifeanddeath.
Similarly,KafkaraisesapurgatorialstatefromaBiblicalsymbolthroughplants
andfireinhisearlierparabolicfragment,‘TheThornBush’,probablywrittenin1922,in
which aman gets stuck in a thorn bush andmustwait for the park directors to get
permission to releasehim.The agitatedman is literally trapped in vegetation; in this
pricklysuspensionhecanthinkbutnotact,speakbutnotmove.Thefragmentalludes
toExodus3:2,MosesandtheBurningBush,whichKafkaaphorisesas:‘Thethornbush
istheoldobstacleintheroad.Itmustcatchfireifyouwanttogofurther’.56AsRichie
Robertson acknowledges, through the symbol of the thorn bush, Kafka shows that
‘[s]piritual progressmust be through the fire, an image recalling purgatory’.57 These
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allusionstoburningbushesandweedsinKafkaandBeckettareremindersthatpartsof
thediscourseofthefinaljudgmentarelooselyentwinedwithplantlife,andthatanon-
binaryvegetatinglifegerminatesfromthem.
Whileanimplicitgreyareabetweenheavenandhell,amidstthewheatandthe
weeds,andwithinthethornbush,reinforcestheconnectionbetweentemporaryforms
ofvegetationandpurgatory,inJoyce’s‘noascentandnoidealvegetation’,theprevailing
imageisnotofclimbingtowardsasummittoachievecatharticrelease,butoneofcyclic,
perpetuatingactivity.InhisreadingofJoyce,BeckettdrawsontheItalianphilosopher
GiambattistaVico’snotionoftheidealeternalhistoryfromScienzaNuova(1725),which
Beckettarticulatesas‘allhumanitycirclingwithfatalmonotonyabouttheProvidential
fulcrum’.58Havingidentifiedthiscyclicpattern,Beckettarguesthatthereis‘acontinual
purgatorialprocessatwork’ in Joyceowing to itsstructuralpreclusionof totalityand
stylistic revolutions.59Hewrites of ‘the absolute absenceof theAbsolute’ and locates
thischaracteristicinminiatureinhiscompatriot’slatestyle:‘Thereisanendlessverbal
germination,maturation,putrefaction, thecyclicdynamismofthe intermediate’.60The
indeterminacy and recurrence that Beckett reads in Joyce are analogous with the
constellation of restless vegetative dynamics expressed in Benjamin and Adorno’s
reflections on Kafka and Beckett, particularly the sense of an unfinished or endless
condition.The interrelationbetweenvegetating lifeandpurgatory is foundedonsuch
dynamics, anddoesnot exclude theplant-like overtones of vegetationbecause of the
perceived infinite drive of plant life, as Michael Marder notes in Plant-Thinking: ‘if
incompletionmeansopen-endedness, thenvegetalgrowthfullysatisfiesthisrendition
ofateles, in that it knowsneitheran inherentend,nor limit’.61AlthoughMarder cites
passivity and torpor as other vegetal characteristics, the process of reproduction ‘by
replacing what goes off or is antiquated with something other’ leads to ‘pure
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proliferation bereft of a sense of closure’.62 The peculiar incompletion of plants,
togetherwiththeactivityandstasisinvegetationmorebroadly,isstrangelyevocative
ofmodernism’sactsofself-preservationthroughprolifictransformation.ItisviaJoyce,
then,thatBeckettidentifiesasuitablymodernmodelofvegetationthatchallengesthe
linearityimpliedinDante’sascendingspiralandreplacesitwithanideaofmovement
as ‘non-directional – ormulti-directional, and a step forward is, by definition, a step
back’,whichseems toconflateorcollapsenotionsofprogressionandretrogression.63
Although the esteemed mythologist Joseph Campbell argues that Joyce’s Finnegans
Wake is likeDante’s visionofpurgatory in that it ‘iswritten in a circlewith a break:
thereisanout’,forBeckett,Joycehasaregenerativeandthereforeinterminablequality
that extends purgatory beyond an intermediate zone indefinitely.64 It is this distinct
stateofsuspensionwithoutdeliverancethatemergesasvegetatinglifeintheworksof
KafkaandBeckett.
Resolution:RenewableDeixisinKafka’sShortStories
ThevegetatinglifecompositedfromLukács,Benjamin,AdornoandBeckettisrestlessly
static, incomplete, residual and cyclic.Thesedynamics resound inKafka’sdiaries,not
only inblatantlynegativeexpressions, suchas ‘[o]nly thiseverlastingwaiting,eternal
helplessness’, in which Kafka chronicles his depressive feelings of incarceration, but
alsowhenhearticulatesthecomplexdualityofvegetatinglife,asitvacillatesbetween
or otherwise conflates activity and passivity, continuation and termination.65 In an
entrydated6thAugust1914,Kafkanotes ‘my lifehasdwindleddreadfully,norwill it
ceasetodwindle. […]Iwaver,continually flytothesummitof themountain,butthen
fallback inamoment. […]Iwaverontheheights; it isnotdeath,alas,buttheeternal
tormentsofdying’.66Kafkaacknowledgesan infinitecapacity todiminish inamanner
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akintoZeno’sdichotomyparadox,ashebecomeslessandlessbutnevernothing.Ina
differentbutstillinterminableprocess,healsodescribestraversingthepolesofecstasy
andmisery,with the implied adverbs ‘continually’ and ‘eternally’ preventing his end.
Dyingisnotdeath,Kafkaiswellaware.Later inthesameyear,heexpressesasimilar
plight,thistimeinrelationtohisliterature:‘Ican’twriteanymore.I’vecomeupagainst
the last boundary, beforewhich I shall in all likelihood again sit down for years, and
then in all likelihood begin another story all over again that will again remain
unfinished. This fate pursues me’.67 By ‘can’t write any more’, Kafka means he has
stalled on this story and is unable to conclude. As the repetition of ‘again’ shows, he
actually has a strong urge to create and will write much more in other attempts,
although,likehismanyunfinishedstories,Kafkaisconsignedtotheinfiniteprocessas
muchasthefiniteproduct.
Examples of ‘vegetative existence’ are plentiful in Kafka’s fiction too, from the
judicialvortexofTheTrial(1914-15)totheunobtainablegoalinTheCastle(1922).He
consistently centres on forsaken protagonists floundering in the perplexing
mechanismsofauthority,whichleadsHowetoassertthatKafka‘presentsdilemmas;he
cannotandsoondoesnotwishtoresolvethem;heoffershisstrugglewiththemasthe
substance of his testimony; […]. After Kafka it becomes hard to believe not only in
answers but even in endings’.68 No instance of Kafkaesque vegetation is more
compelling than the story of the mysterious Hunter Gracchus, who fell to his death
whilehuntingdeerintheBlackForest.Writtenin1917,itbeginswithGracchusarriving
inRivabyboat,supineonabier,totellhistaletotheMayor,orBurgomaster:
‘Areyoudead?’
‘Yes,’saidtheHunter.‘Asyousee.’[…]
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‘Butyouarealivetoo’saidtheBurgomaster.
‘Inacertainsense,’saidtheHunter,‘inacertainsenseIamalivetoo.’69
ThereisanoteofhumourinGracchus’s‘asyousee’comment,whichpresumesthathim
beingdeadisself-evident,despitehimwalkingandtalking.Gracchusbeingalive,onthe
otherhand, isdemoted to thevague ‘inacertainsense’. If thedeathlyelementseems
foremost,itisnotfatallyso,asGracchusremainssuspendedinalimbothatcontravenes
both life and death. It is not exactly a petrified, standstill existence either. In fact, he
notestwice,‘Iamalwaysinmotion’,althoughtherepetitionofthisstatementbetraysits
etiolatedqualitytoo.Gracchusexplains:‘Iamforever,onthegreatstairthatleadsupto
it [the other world]. On that infinitely wide and spacious stair I clamber about,
sometimesup,sometimesdown,sometimesontheright,sometimesontheleft,always
inmotion’.70DespiteHaroldBloom’sattempttodefinetheGracchusmythasaparable
for Kafkaesque writing as ‘repetition, labyrinthine and burrow-building’, Gracchus’s
erraticmovement here, ranging indiscriminately in all directions eternally, inevitably
does evoke purgatorial myths, including the Wandering Jew and the ghost ship, the
Flying Dutchman.71 Gracchus repeats: ‘I am always in motion. But when I make a
supremeflightandseethegateshiningbeforemeIawakenpresentlyonmyoldship,
stillstrandedforlornly insomeearthlyseaorother’.72Kafkarevealsamoremundane
inspiration for the story in his diary entry from 6th April 1917 where he recalls
witnessing a boat arriving at the port and no passengers disembarking.73 In that
experience,Kafkapresumably thought thehelmsmanwasdestinednever to leave the
boat.Inthewrittenstory,itisstrikingthatGracchusemphasiseshisrestlessmovement,
toensurethatbeingstrandedisunderstoodasasentencetobeactive,whichpertainsto
the vegetative life in Lukács’s readings of modernism suspended in animation,
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Benjamin’s exhausted, unfinished beings and Adorno’s broken creatures in quasi-
survival.
Although Gracchus’smovement is constant, it is not linear or progressive and
therefore will not amount to salvation or redemption. His world is ‘a meaninglessly
revolvingcarrouselonwhichtheendflowsagainandagainintothebeginning’;heisan
‘eternally living-dead man, who can neither live nor die’, subject to the ‘durable
presenceofcatastrophe,whichbecomesanormal,permanentcondition’.74Itisastate
ofbeingherecognisesinhimself:‘Iamhere,morethanthatIdonotknow,furtherthan
thatIcannotgo.Myshiphasnorudder,anditisdrivenbythewindthatblowsinthe
undermostregionsofdeath’.75Gracchusisapparentlyadrift,devoidofagencyandatthe
mercy of external forces. In this existential crisis, he is divested of a teleological
trajectory and therefore shackled to the immediate context, the place currently
occupied.Kafkareinforcesthis ‘eternalpresent’throughhisnarrativetense,according
toDorritCohn,whoarguesthatthe‘presenttenseusedbytheghostlynarratorsisthe
grammatical signal for theirunrelievedsurvival’.76But ‘here’ is feltasamorespecific
limittoo,astheboundaryofGracchus’sknowledgeinhismobileprison,whichsuggests
he is restricted to the present in more ways than one. Early in the story, Gracchus
implieshehascomprehensiveknowledgeoftheworld,yetittranspiresheisforgetful
andmustbereminded ‘in the firstmomentsof returning toconsciousness’, signalling
his deficient powers of recall.77 Without a reliable, self-initiated memory, the rich
contextsofthewiderworldandpastexperienceareoddlyunavailabletohim.
Theemphasison‘here’inGracchus’s‘Iamhere’,withitssenseofbeinganchored
ina spatialand temporalpresent, lendssignificance toKafka’s latermicropiece, ‘The
Departure’,writtenbetween1920and1921.Thelastlinesread:
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“Whereisthemastergoing?”
“Idon’tknow,”Isaid,“justoutofhere,justoutofhere.Outofhere,nothingelse,
it’stheonlywayIcanreachmygoal.”
“Soyouknowyourgoal?”heasked.
“Yes,”Ireplied,“I’vejusttoldyou.Outofhere–that’smygoal.”78
Clearly,themaster’simperativeistoleave,butasadeicticworddependentoncontext,
‘here’ can exceed a singular place. It has the peculiar ability to follow the master,
pointing to each current situation. The goal to get out of here is therefore foiled
infinitely as it is repeatedly reset, which evokes the unachievable, self-perpetuating
aspirationofmodernism.Readersaremadeawareofthis indexicalregenerationatan
acute level through the repetition of the word ‘here’ four times in quick succession.
Logicallyspeaking,thereferencepointinthefirstutteranceisminutelydifferenttothe
lastutterance;indeed,escapingbeginsasameanstoreachhisgoal,beforetransmuting
into the goal itself. This deictic mobility reveals the renewability of ‘here’, while
simultaneously appearing and sounding rather hackneyed owing to its frequency. It
conveysbothafreshcontextandanaggingimperative.Inalittleoverahundredwords,
then, Kafka evokes modernism’s transformation from a single, historically necessary
departurein‘outofheretoreachmygoal’toanabortiveandpersistentspiritin‘outof
here–that’smygoal’.
Kafka expresses vegetating life in different terms in his fragment ‘Resolutions’
(1911), translated from the German title ‘Entschlüsse’ (decisions), a relative of
Entschlossenheit (determination). The title itself holds connotations of finitude, in the
way something can be resolved, as well as connotations of purpose, as in something
steadfast or resolute. Like the related word ‘determination’, resolution is at once an
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expressionofclosureandperseverance.Kafka’sshortpieceutilises thisduality in the
narrator’s failure to integratesociallyandhis recourse toamorehermetic, solipsistic
existence.Itfinishesonthefollowingnote:
perhaps thebestresource is tomeeteverythingpassively, tomakeyourselfan
inertmass,and,ifyoufeelthatyouarebeingcarriedaway,nottoletyourselfbe
luredintotakingasingleunnecessarystep,tostareatotherswiththeeyesofan
animal, to feelnocompunction, inshort,withyourownhand to throttledown
whatever ghostly life remains in you, that is, to enlarge the final peace of the
graveyardandletnothingsurvivesavethat.79
Kafka’s narrator describes conditions associated with a vegetative existence in his
recourse topassivity, inertia, emotional austerity, suppressedghostly life anddeathly
peace. The difference in this example is that the narrator articulates a contradictory
stateofwilledlifelessnessinvolvingadecisiontobecomeanonentity,sothatapathyis
actuallydesiredasafacilitytobeused.Curiously,thereisresistancetolifeatworkin
this instance inwhich theveryactof resisting lifewould contain someof thevitality
that is supposedly resisted. In otherwords, the volition implied in ‘making yourself’,
‘notletting’, ‘throttlingdown’and‘lettingnothing’constitutesaparadoxicalprocessof
‘self-denial’, wherein the presence of self is reinforced in the act of self-effacement.
However, considering the combination of activity and stasis outlined in the forms of
vegetatinglifeabove,itisarguablythisimpulsionwithdesignsonpassivitythatensures
theendlessendofvegetation ismore thoroughlyachieved.Kafkaeffectivelyrevealsa
quirk of vegetative life through the narrative voice actively pursuing inactivity and
expending energy on a lacklustre state. This dynamic appears to be a negative
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formulation of the utopian progress that underpins modernism, where the spirit is
redirectedintoneutralityandindifference.Itisaperverseappropriationthatpresages
theintersectionofmodernistélanandlatemodernistfatigue.
Thevegetatinglifeinrenewabledeicticlanguageandtheparadoxofself-denial
can thereforebeadded toWeller’s identificationofKafka’s ‘linguisticnegativism’asa
‘proleptic’ realisationof latemodernism.80 In ‘Performing theNegative:Kafkaand the
Origins of Late Modernism’ (2016), Weller examines the frequency and variety of
negative language components andmodifiers in Kafka’s stories, particularly the ‘un-’
affixasa‘morphologicalenactmentofanegation’,toarguethatKafkaisaprecursorto
Beckett’s late modern ‘literature of the unword’.81 After referring to Adorno’s and
Blanchot’sreflectionsonGracchus’sexperienceof‘undeath’asa‘terrifyingvisionofthe
livingdeathtobeexperiencedbysomanyintheNaziconcentrationcampsandSoviet
gulags’,Wellerconcludesthat:
The emergence of latemodernism inEuropeowes somuch toKafkaprecisely
becausehis is a literatureof thedark times, inwhichbeing (above all, human
being) can only be defined negatively, and in which, ironically, no amount of
negativitycan,forallitsjustification,reducebeingtonothing,theanimatetothe
inanimate,theproperlylivingtotheproperlydead.82
Weller refers to Kafka’s historical relevance for post-Holocaust late modernists here
and yet the surviving, purgatorial dynamic he describes also relates to the spirit of
modernism’s own persistence as a vestigial presence in late modernism. If late
modernism is, asWeller stateselsewhere, ‘perhapsbestunderstoodpreciselyassuch
an art of impotence and ignorance, an art that no longer trusts the power of the
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aesthetictoachieveepiphany,thatnolongerbelievesartcan’,oneofthewaysthistakes
shapeinKafka’snascentformisanexposuretotherenewabilityofafailingmoment.83
Theelusivenessof ‘here’ transforms frommultiple rousingopportunities towretched
eternal toil. To adoptKafka’s title ‘Resolutions’, the active component, or ‘resolve’, of
modernismappearstoattendandprotractitsclosure,or ‘resolution’, leavingtracesof
modernistlifecompellingthenegative,attenuatedformulationsoflatemodernism.
‘NoIdealVegetation’:VoidDeixisinBeckett’sTextsforNothing
WhileKafka envisions the suspended animation implicit in highmodernist dynamics,
Beckett exemplifies it as an author writing predominantly after 1945, during
modernism’splateau.TheendlessnessofvegetatinglifepervadesBeckett’swritingfrom
his lastprose text,StirringsStill, in1989,backtohis firstpublishednovel,Murphy, in
1938,inwhichthetitlecharacterpursuesaremarkablysimilarkindof‘will-lessness’to
thatexpressedinKafka,inthethird,darklevelofhismindwherethereis‘nothingbut
formsbecomingandcrumblingintothefragmentsofanewbecoming,withoutloveor
hateoranyintelligibleprincipleofchange’.84TextsforNothing,aseriesof13shorttexts
written between 1950 and 1951, is a particularly pertinent example given the title’s
indicationof activitywithoutprospect or progress.Bearing inmind thatKafka found
himselfstuckinacreativeloopofstartingbutneverendingstories,TextsforNothingis
significantasaresponsetoBeckett’sowncreativeimpasseafterL’Innommable,written
betweenMarch1949andSeptember1950.InalettertoJeromeLindoninApril1951,
heconfides:‘ithasleftmeinasorrystate.I’mtryingtogetoverit.ButIamnotgetting
overit.Idonotknowifitwillbeabletomakeabook.Perhapsitwillhaveallbeenfor
nothing’.85Overthecourseof1951,Beckettdescribeshistexts‘fornothing’variouslyas
‘afewlittleturds’;‘awhirlingdervish’;‘littlefly-splashesagainstthewindow’;and‘the
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afterbirth of L’Innommable and not to be approached directly’.86 These wry
formulationsofferaninsightintothestatusofthetextsasnotsingularorfully-fledged
in their own right; they exist as excess,waste and remains inBeckett’smind, closely
related to past endeavours. For Louis Oppenheim, this intertextual relationship is
characteristicofBeckett’sworkas‘adiscoursethatself-reflectivelyfocusesonitsown
undoingofnarrative,itsunwritingofwriting–inwriting.Beckett’screativeprocessis
saidtohavebeen“decreative”inthesensethatitwasmotivatedbytheneedtorewrite
and continually fine tune previous texts in new ones’.87 In his negative inclination to
‘undo’ and ‘unwrite’, Beckett evokes an alternative vision of modernism’s creative
wellspring, which, as we have seen, also contains a form of neutralisation of its
productivityinitsresistancetothepastandinsistenceontheimmediate.
Beckett’s ‘decreative’ drive existswithin single texts as the familiarBeckettian
process of ‘unwording’, involving affirmation, reflection, revision, negation and
repetition. This process contributes to the collocation of activity and stasis that
constitutes thevegetating life inBeckett.Forexample, thenarrativevoice inTexts for
Nothingutters:‘Whatvarietyandatthesametimewhatmonotony,howvarieditisand
at the same time,what’s theword,howmonotonous.Whatagitationandat the same
timewhatcalm.Whatvicissitudeswithinwhatchangelessness’.88Thenarratorachieves
the monotony, calm and changelessness of which he speaks by repeating a basic
syntacticalstructure:therhetorical‘what’inconjunctionwith‘andatthesametime’.In
keeping,therearealsopermutationsofthecorethemetoachievethevariety,agitations
andvicissitudes,namelytheuseof‘how’insteadof‘what’;thereflectionandhesitation
inthequestioning‘what’stheword’;andthemovetoanewconfigurationthroughthe
preposition ‘within’.Beckett’snarratordoes looselypracticewhatheobserves in this
largely repetitive and yet refreshed passage, although, admittedly, describing his
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changesas‘variety’and‘vicissitudes’isahumorousexaggeration.
DeicticlanguagefurtherincreasesthesustainabilityofBeckett’s‘literatureofthe
unword’.SimilartotheKafkashortstoriesdiscussedabove,Beckettdrawsattentionto
the infinite present of the here and now, as well as highlighting the challenges to
immediacy and identity inherent to context-dependent language. Early in Texts for
Nothing, Beckett’s narrator underlines the temporal and psychological aspects of his
purgatorialcondition,althoughhesarcasticallylinksthemtoacelestialsphereinitially:
‘And now here, what now here, one enormous second, as in Paradise, and themind
slow,slownearlystopped’.89Intextthree,‘Here,departfromhereandgoelsewhere,or
stayhere,butcomingandgoing’isrepresentativeofthecomplexityof‘here’inrelation
toaspeakingsubject.90Thefirsthalfindicatesthat ‘here’,onceuttered,isvacatedand
severedfromthesubject.Itisoriginaryandcannotbeoccupiedthroughreflection.The
secondhalfindicatesthat‘here’canbeexperiencedasalivemomentbutmustremain
an ineffable, reoccurring activity. This combination of delay and performativity
resurfaceswhenBeckett’snarratorinsists‘IsayitasIhearit’,whichisalinerepeated
several times in Beckett’s later novel-length work How It Is (1964).91 In an
acknowledgementofthecreativeprocessandtheregisteringofinspiration,‘IsayitasI
hearit’professesimmediacy,like‘here’does,butitactuallyintimateseitheraninternal
dialogue or dictator-scribe relationship, in which what is thought or heard must be
computedandthenverballyrepeated,therebyresultinginaminuteschismbetweenthe
heardandsaid.InBeckett,then,‘here’ispurgatorialbecauseitistransientandelusive;
itisrepeatedlyvoidedandthereforenotentirelyavailabletothe‘I’otherthanasaform
ofbeing.Hence,thenarratorsays‘I’mherethat’sallIknowandthatit’sstillnotme,it’s
ofthatthebesthastobemade.Thereisnofleshanywhere,noranywaytodie’.92While
thebeginningofthisexampleisremarkablysimilartotheHunterGracchus’scomment
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‘Iamhere,morethanthatIdonotknow’,Beckettalsoconveysthenon-identityarising
fromthedelayinself-reflectiveutterances,inwhichtheacutedistancebetween‘I’and
‘here’revealsthespeakerisinevitablyoverdueorbehindtimeintermsofthepresence
affordedbythefirstpersonpronounanddeicticlanguage.
Beckett is attracted to the contradiction in ‘where you are will never be long
habitable’,which,asfarasthehereandnowgoes,meanstheimpossibilityofrealising
one’s self in themoment, as opposed to experiencing the livedmoment itself.93 This
revelation is evident in a series of remarks on the emptiness of the present, such as
‘Here,nothingwillhappenhere,noonewillbehere,formanyalongday’and‘howisit
nothing iseverhereandnow? […]Whatelsecan therebe to this infinitehere’.94The
presentappearsemptybecausethegapbetweenconsciousnessandself-consciousness
meansapperceptionmusthappenretrospectivelyand thus imperfectly.Cognizanceof
thepresentisactuallyshowntobeanexerciseinassimilatingtherecentpast,andthe
upshotforidentityinBeckettisthatthetemporalnowfeelsuntenanted.Consequently,
Beckett’snarratorrelateswiththesingularpasttense,astextsixsuggestsinareference
to Dante’s Purgatorio: ‘I was, I was, they say in Purgatory, in Hell too’.95 Beckett
mentions this purgatorial non-existence to George Duthuit in an earlier 1948 letter,
makingthereferencetoDantemoreexplicitbyusingtheoriginalItalian:‘Doyouknow
thecrycommontothoseinpurgatory?Iofui’.96Incontrasttothemoreunifiedpresence
of ‘I am’ found in theCartesianaxiom jepense,donc je suis, thephrase ‘Iwas’ reveals
thatBeckettrealisesaDanteanformofselfassomethingalreadypassed,ensuringthat
theipseityspokeninthepresent,‘I’,haselapsedupondetection,‘was’.IfforHabermas,
modernity’s‘newvalueplacedonthetransitory,theelusiveandtheephemeral,thevery
celebration of dynamism, discloses a longing for an undefiled, immaculate and stable
present’, Beckett demonstrates the impossibility of pursuing ‘nowness’ as
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uncontaminated immanence.97 Through narrative figures riveted to self-reflection on
theirpotentialorpendingcreationanddesired termination,Texts forNothing reveals
the unshakable void that coexists with attempts at the conscious representation of
modernperceptionsofsubjectivityintimeandspace.
However,Beckett’s‘Dante…Bruno.Vico..Joyce’essaydiscussedearlierindicates
that although his later narrative voicesmight conceive of a Dantean purgatory, they
actuallysufferaJoyceanone.Beckett’s‘lastword’onpurgatoriesreads:
Dante’s isconicalandconsequently impliesculmination.MrJoyce’s isspherical
and excludes culmination. In the one there is an ascent from real vegetation –
Ante-Purgatory, to idealvegetation–TerrestrialParadise: in theother there is
no ascent and no ideal vegetation. In the one, absolute progression and a
guaranteedconsummation;intheother,flux–progressionorretrogression,and
anapparentconsummation.98
Dante’s purgatory posits an end, away out at the top of the spiralledmountain into
EarthlyParadise.Itisatransitionalplace‘inwhichthehumanspiritcuresitself/And
becomesfittoleapupintoheaven’.99Incontrast,Joyce’spurgatoryisaclosedsystem,
proteanandprovisionalinside,butlackingtheprospectofcatharsis.AsDanielaCaselli
explains: ‘Joyce’s and Dante’s Purgatories are similar because both move; in Joyce,
however, the movement has lost its redemptive guarantee, its fixed structure, its
characterofspace-in-between.Ithasbecomeasphere,aviciouscircleinwhichastep
forward is a stepback’.100 Yet the impetus to end, and,moreover, to end in the right
way,keepsBeckett’snarratorgoing.Itisasthoughthepromiseofgraduationfromreal
vegetationtoidealvegetationremandsthenarratorinhisplaceofnoidealvegetation:
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‘No,somethingbettermustbefound,abetterreason,forthistostop,anotherword,a
betteridea,toputinthenegative,anewno,tocancelalltheothers,alltheoldnoesthat
buriedmedownhere,deepinthisplacewhichisnotone,whichismerelyamomentfor
thetimebeingeternal,which iscalledhere’.101Despitebeingstuck intheperditionof
the deictic instant, Beckett’s narrator clings on to a form of totality in the way he
recognises his existence as a ‘pensum’, a task to be completed.102 The early Beckett
commentatorWalterStraussarguesthat:
The heroes of Beckett’s universe really vegetate, and, since this fate is
unendurable, they try to vegetate ideally, i.e., they persuade themselves that
thereisanascentandwaitforsomesortofangeltobeckonthemon,likeDante's
pilgrims.Buttheangel,theepiphany,nevercomes,andtheyfinallyreturntoreal
vegetation.Likethevegetable,theywiltanddisintegrate.103
It is this idealof finality thatmaintains thenarrator’s realityof infinitude inTexts for
Nothing,asitrecurrentlypositsanalternativemeanstoanendthatpreventshimfrom
reconcilingwithhisendlesssituation.Becketteffectivelyconveysvegetatinglifethatis
nourishedbythepurgatorialnarrativesofmovementanddevelopmentbut isactually
rootedinitscyclicpatterns,andthereforerelentlesslydeniedfruition.
Ifthetaskistoproduceaconsummationofnegation,or‘anewno’asBeckett’s
narrator expresses, it nevertheless requires vestigial willpower and desire. David
Watsonclaimsthat,‘[a]taprimarylevel,narrativesareaboutdesire:allstoriesconcern
thedrivetoresolveastateofdisruption,discoveramissingobject,achieveafulfilment
of ambition, and soon’.104 It is fair to claim thatBeckett’snarrativesare repletewith
waysinwhichsuchdesiresareinvalidated,notleastbecauseofhisopen,self-cancelling
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31
structuresandprovisional,hypotheticalregistersthatrepeatedlythwartprogressand
resolution, often at the expenseof individual autonomy.AsRubenBorg argues inhis
essay on Beckettian afterlife and the posthuman, Beckett is ‘staging the exhausted,
impracticable afterlife of that enduring Enlightenment ideal—the self-determined
subject’,inwhich‘thesenseofbeingnotonlymortal,butinexcessofone’sowndeath,
corresponds to a stateof infinite passivity—precisely that “limbopurgedof desire” in
which Beckett’s characters are always suspended’.105 Borg extrapolates this principle
fromBelacquaShuah inBeckett’sDreamofFair toMiddlingWomen(1932),who, like
Murphy,isabletoaccesspartsofthemindhecalls‘thecup,theumbra,thetunnel’for
monthsatatime,‘wheretherewasnoconflictofflightandflowandEroswasasnullas
Anteros’.106However,itisworthnotingthatwhileBelacquais‘uniquelyathomeinthe
middle-ground’ofpassivityand ‘is innohurrytoberedeemed’,evenhispurgationof
desire is temporaryand incomplete.107 Indeed, it is impossible tocompletelyexpunge
desireinBeckett’sworld,preciselybecauseBeckettianvegetativelifeisoftenaproduct
of theunfulfilleddesire for such indifference,which iswhatmakes itbothactiveand
static. As with Kafka’s self-denial that reinforces the self that it effaces, and akin to
Beckett’snarrators’urgestospeakintosilence,thedesireforapathyisanotherexample
of aporia as itmustultimatelyusewhat itwants tonegate. In thisway, the resulting
vegetating life is not another path to the contented equilibrium implied in Beckett’s
readingofDante,despiteresortingtoaDanteanqueststructurethatprojectsanend.As
AlistairMorgansuggests:‘thefigureofexhaustioninBeckettprecludesatimeofpeace
orrest.Thepointatwhichtheendcomesbecomesanendlesslyvanishingmoment’.108
Desire emerges as a revenant in Beckett, the hardy but hollow leftover of genuine
possibilitythatneverthelesscontinuestopropelhisshatteredsubjects.
Whether the residual desire in Beckett’s work produces the invigorating
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differences of renewal or stultifying sameness of repetition is a critical point of
contentionwhenregardingBeckettasalatemodernist.H.PorterAbbottsuggeststhat
Beckett’scentreofgravityisinmodernism,preciselyowingtoaspiritofoppositionthat
runs through his whole oeuvre, from text to text and within texts. He argues that
Beckett affords himself new creative opportunities through a ‘deliberate process of
recollection by distortion', which produces ‘deliberate metamorphosis, a kind of
misremembering’.109AsBeckett revisits and crucially revisesprevious territory, he is
‘recapitulating an antagonism to habit one can trace well back in Baudelairean
modernité’.110 InPorterAbbott’sreading,Beckettretainstheexperimental, innovative
moderniststatus,albeit,alatemoderniststatussince,aftertheinitialaestheticshocks
ofthepost-warperiod,Beckett’soeuvredisplayedmoreconstrainedinnovations.Mark
Perdetti, however, argues that Beckett’s is a knowing modernism, which upsets the
dominanceofthemodernistgravitythatPorterAbbottidentifies.ForPerdetti,Beckett’s
‘self-awareness represents a fundamental inversion of the modernist ideology of
perpetualinnovation:insteadofnovelty,latemodernismpresentsuswiththetediumof
the already-said’.111 The impetus of the oppositional spirit has seemingly been
exhausted in this view, and ‘[i]n the absence of an alternative aesthetic, the late
modernist writer is condemned to occupy that limit position, and to write from its
weariness’.112Perdetti raises the ideaofBeckett inanartisticno-man’s landbetween
modernism and postmodernism, having to perform an inauthentic rendition of an
expiring aesthetic. In conjunction, however, the genuine development and the ironic
reiterationinPorterAbbott’sandPerdetti’srespectiveanalysesshowthatBeckettgives
offtheimpressionofbothresumingmodernism,asanongoingresistancetothesame,
as well as consciously returning tomodernism, as a jaded, anterior formwithout an
established successor.Beckett’swork can support bothof thesepositionsbecausehe
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33
conveys the enlivening-deadening duality of vegetating life that already exists in the
auto-defeating and auto-sustaining spirit of modernism, especially as perceptions of
modernism’sdynamismmaturetodetectrestlessstasisandnostalgiaforproductivity.
Beckett’s late modernism is therefore with and without modernism: the
experimentation involved in excavating the modernist ruins of originality and
immediacy,aswellasitsnarrativesofindividualsubjectivityandtheideaofprogress,
appearstobearitsspiritualhallmarkwhilebearingwitnesstoitsideologicaldemise.
Conclusion:TheLateModernistExecutionofModernism
ThevegetatinglifeinKafkaandBeckettisacompulsiontobeactivewhileanchoredina
spatial and temporalpresent that inhibits salvationor totality. Critical orthodoxafter
Benjamin, Lukács and Adorno is to relate these purgatorial conditions to the
dehumanising forces of industry, technology, urbanity and war in early twentieth-
centurymodernityorthedecayofculture,experienceandsubjectivityinthedamaged
life of post-Holocaust later modernity. However, vegetative life also chimes with the
dynamics ofmodernism as a sensibility, particularly the duality that emerges from a
conceptionofmodernismasanunfulfilledspirit consistingofcompulsiveactivityand
overall inertia.Aswithdeictic language,however,thevalueofmodernism’spursuitof
thenowandthenewisamatterofperception,asitcanpresentbothinfinitepotential
and endless emptiness.Kafka andBeckett are receptive to the latter cycle of attempt
without prospect, and subsequently their modernist life spirit shifts to a negative
teleological or eschatological project to terminate itself, whereby the effort invested
into ending is ironically the cause of its continuation. Kafka’s prescient literature
forecasts the later application of modernism’s vestigial spirit to pore over its own
remains, in thewayBeckett’s post-war art of failuredoes so assiduously. The lackof
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34
authenticororiginallifethatthisvegetatinglifeimpliesisproperlyassociatedwithlate
modernism, if understoodas adesignation that covers ‘the empty spaces left byhigh
modernism’s dissolution’ in which ‘late modernists reassembled fragments into
disfigured likenesses of modernist masterpieces: the unlovely allegories of a world’s
end’.113 Despite his narrow periodization of latemodernism as the late 1920s to the
1930s,TyrusMiller recognises the importantpoint that ‘in suchworks thevectorsof
despairandutopia,thecompulsiontodeclineandtheimpulsetorenewal,arenotjust
related;theyarepracticallyindistinguishable’.114Latemodernismthereforeformalises
theabortivebutenduringkernelthatexistswithinthespiritofmodernism;itenactsthe
chronic belatedness and persistence endemic to its oppositional, experimental
forbearer. Kafka and Beckett invoke and perform this sense of protracted failure
presentintheirownsupposedmodernistartisticsensibilitytoexposetheburdensome,
atrophiedsideof itsdynamism.Indoingso,thesetwowriterseffectively ‘execute’the
spirit ofmodernism as they are both engagedwith and consciously going beyond it.
Subject to the frisson of the creative process but without convincing progression,
Kafka’sandBeckett’svegetatingfiguresareemblematicoflatemodernism,lingeringon
thelossandpossiblerenewalofself,communityandmeaning,butfromagreaterself-
reflectivepositionofdejectionandincredulity.
1ShaneWeller,‘PerformingtheNegative:KafkaandtheOriginsofLateModernism’,TheModernLanguageReview,111:3(2016),775-794:784.2JürgenHabermas,‘Modernity:AnUnfinishedProject’,inHabermasandtheUnfinishedProjectofModernity,ed.MaurizioPasserind'EntrèvesandSeylaBenhabib(Cambridge:MITPress,1997),3.3IrvingHowe,‘TheCultureofModernism’,Commentary,November1967.https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-culture-of-modernism/(accessedJuly30,2017)4GabrielJosipovici,‘Modernismstillmatters’,NewStatesman,6September2010:67.5SusanStanfordFriedman,‘DefinitionalExcursions:TheMeaningsofModern/Modernity/Modernism’,MODERNISM/modernity,8:3(2001),493–513:503.6DavidWeisberg,ChroniclesofDisorder:SamuelBeckettandtheCulturalPoliticsoftheModernNovel(NewYork:SUNYPress,2000),53.7‘EclipseoftheHighbrow’,TheTimes,25March1941,5.8‘P.R.A.OnDeclineof‘Modernism’’,TheTimes,1June1955,8.
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9MauriceBeebe,‘Introduction:WhatModernismWas’,JournalofModernLiterature,3:5(1974),1065-1084:1065.10Howe,‘CultureofModernism’.11Habermas,‘Modernity:AnUnfinishedProject’,6.12PeterBürger,TheoryoftheAvant-Garde,trans.MichaelShaw(Minneapolis:UniversityOfMinnesotaPress,1984),63.13RobertGenter,LateModernism:Art,Culture,andPoliticsinColdWarAmerica(Philadelphia:UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress,2010),7.14StanfordFriedman,‘DefinitionalExcursions’,503.15Forexample,seeDavidJames,ModernistFutures:InnovationandInheritanceintheContemporaryNovel,(CambridgeUniversityPress:Cambridge,2012)andDavidJames,ed.,TheLegaciesofModernism:HistoricisingPostwarandContemporaryFiction(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2011).16DavidJames,ModernistFutures(CambridgeUniversityPress:Cambridge,2012),15.17StanfordFriedman,‘DefinitionalExcursions’,505.18Habermas,‘Modernity:AnUnfinishedProject’,3.19Howe,‘CultureofModernism’.20GeorgLukács,TheMeaningofContemporaryRealism,trans.JohnandNeckeMander(London:MerlinPress,1969),35.21Lukács,MeaningofContemporaryRealism,18.22ibid.19.23ibid.26.24ibid.26,31.25ibid.33.26ibid.36.27ElaineMiller,TheVegetativeSoul:FromPhilosophyofNaturetoSubjectivityintheFeminine(Albany,StateUniversityofNewYorkPress,2002),187.28MichaelMarder,Plant-Thinking:APhilosophyofVegetalLife(NewYork:ColumbiaUniversityPress,2013),22.29Marder,Plant-Thinking,163.30“vegetate,v.”.OEDOnline.June2017.OxfordUniversityPress.https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/221884?rskey=R69ymm&result=2(accessedJuly30,2017).31“vegetieren,v.”.CollinsGermantoEnglishDictionaryOnline.https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-german/vegetieren(accessedJuly30,2017).32JamesE.Strick,WilliamReich:Biologist(Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,2015),52.33ItwouldbeviabletakethepsychopathologyinLukács’sdiagnosisofan‘idiot’svegetativeexistence’atfacevalue.Representationsofnotablebodiedorevendisembodiedbeingsdisplayingpsychologicalandneurologicaldisorders,suchasschizophrenia,paranoia,hypergraphia,dysfluencyandexpressiveaphasia,arerifeinBeckettasresearchprojectson‘BeckettandtheBrain’haveshown.Forexample,seeElizabethBarry,UlrikaMaudeandLauraSalisbury,eds.,‘Beckett,MedicineandtheBrain’SpecialIssue,JournalofMedicalHumanities,37:2(2016).34SeeStevenLaureys,etal,‘UnresponsiveWakefulnessSyndrome:ANewNamefortheVegetativeStateorApallicSyndrome’,BMCMedicine,8:68(2010).35OEDOnline.36GeorgLukács,‘Freud’sPsychologyoftheMasses’,inLukács:ReviewsandArticlesfromDieroteFahne,trans.PeterPalmer(London:MerlinPress,1983),33-36;33.37SigmundFreud,BeyondthePleasurePrincipleandOtherWritings,trans.JohnReddick(London:Penguin,2003),81.38WalterBenjamin,‘FranzKafka:OntheTenthAnniversaryofHisDeath’,inIlluminations,ed.HannahArendtandtrans.HarryZorn(London:Pimlico,1999),108–35:109.39Benjamin,‘FranzKafka’,113.40ibid.113,114.
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41ibid.131.42ibid.117.43Lukács,MeaningofContemporaryRealism,45.44Benjamin,‘FranzKafka’,125.45AlistairMorgan,‘MereLife,DamagedLifeandEphemeralLife’,Angelaki,19:1,113-127:120.46TheodorAdorno,‘TryingtoUnderstandEndgame’,NewGermanCritique,26(1982),trans.MichaelT.Jones,119–50:122.47TheodorAdorno,MinimaMoralia:ReflectionsfromDamagedLife(London:Verso,2005).48AlistairMorgan,Adorno’sConceptofLife(London:Continuum,2007),2.49TheodorAdorno,‘Metaphysics’,inCanOneLiveafterAuschwitz?APhilosophicalReader,ed.RolfTiedemann(Stanford:StanfordUniversityPress,2003�),442.50TheodorAdorno,‘NotesonKafka’inPrisms,trans.SamuelandShierryWeber,(Minneapolis:MITPress,1981),259.51SamuelBeckett,‘Dante…Bruno.Vico..Joyce’inDisjecta,ed.RubyCohn(JohnCalder:London,1983),33.52JohnL.Murphy,‘Beckett’sPurgatories’,inBeckett,JoyceandtheArtoftheNegative,ed.ColleenJaurretche(AmsterdamandNewYork:Rodopi,2005),109.53SamuelBeckett,Krapp’sLastTapeandothershorterplays(London:FaberandFaber,2009),5.ThenameKrappsuggeststhehomophonic‘crap’,derivingfromtheAnglo-Latincrappa,meaning‘chaff’,whichalsosoundslikeBeckett’sshortstorytitle‘Draff’’fromMorePricksthanKicks(1934),whichstemsfromtheGermantreber,meaning‘husks,grain’.54SamuelBeckett,MaloneDies(London:FaberandFaber,2010),71.55Beckett,MaloneDies,72.56FranzKafka,Kafka:TheBlueOctavoNotebooks,(Cambridge,MA:ExactChange,1991),23.57RichieRobertson,‘KafkaasAnti-Christian’inACompaniontotheWorksofFranzKafka,ed.JamesRolleston(Rochester,NY:CamdenHouse,2003),101-121;113.58Beckett,‘Dante…Bruno.Vico..Joyce’,23.59ibid.33.60ibid.33,29.61Marder,Plant-Thinking,24.62ibid.192,24.63Beckett,‘Dante…Bruno.Vico..Joyce’,33.64JosephCampbell,MythicWorlds,ModernWords:TheArtofJamesJoyce(Novato:NewWorldLibrary,1993),15.65FranzKafka,Diaries1910-1923,(NewYork:SchockenBooks,1988),266.66Kafka,Diaries1910-1923,302.67ibid.318.68Howe,‘CultureofModernism’.69FranzKafka,TheCompleteShortStories(London:Vintage,2005),228.70Kafka,CompleteShortStories,228.71HaroldBloom,ed.,FranzKafka(NewYork:ChelseaHouse:2010),7.72Kafka,CompleteShortStories,229.73Kafka,Diaries1910-1923,373.74WilhelmEmrich,WilliamLangebartelandIreneZuk,‘FranzKafkaandLiteraryNihilism’,JournalofModernLiterature,6:3,FranzKafkaSpecialNumber(1977),366-379:370.75Kafka,CompleteShortStories,230.76DorritCohn,‘Kafka’sEternalPresent:NarrativeTensein“EinLandarzt”andOtherFirst-PersonStories’,PMLA,83:1(1968),144-150:147.77Kafka,CompleteShortStories,228.78ibid.449.
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79ibid.398.80Weller,‘PerformingtheNegative’,780.81ibid.783.82ibid.793,794.83ShaneWeller,‘BeckettandLateModernism’,inTheNewCambridgeCompaniontoBeckett,ed.DirkVanHulle(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2015),89-102:95-96.84SamuelBeckett,Murphy(London:FaberandFaber,2009),72.85SamuelBeckett,TheLettersofSamuelBeckett,1941–1956,Vol.2,eds.GeorgeCraig,MarthaDowFehsenfeld,DanGunnandLoisMoreOverbeck(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2011),234.86Beckett,Letters,Vol.2,241,289,285,300.87LoisOppenheim,‘SituatingSamuelBeckett’,TheCambridgeCompaniontotheModernistNovel,ed.MoragShiach(NewYork:Cambridge,2007),224-237:231.88SamuelBeckett,TextsforNothingandOtherShorterProse,1950-1976(London:FaberandFaber,2010),37.89Beckett,TextsforNothing,8.90ibid.11.91ibid.22.92ibid.14.93ibid.7.94ibid.15,26.95ibid.27.96Beckett,Letters,Vol.2,92.97Habermas,‘Modernity:AnUnfinishedProject’,5.98Beckett,‘Dante…Bruno.Vico..Joyce’,33.99DanteAlighieri,TheDivineComedy,trans.C.H.Sisson(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,2008),199.100DaniellaCaselli,Beckett’sDantes:IntertextualityintheFictionandCriticism(Manchester:ManchesterUniversityPress,2006),20.101Beckett,TextsforNothing,48.102ibid.31.103WalterA.Strauss,‘Dante’sBelacquaandBeckett’sTramps’,ComparativeLiterature,11:3(Summer,1959),250-261:260104DavidWatson,ParadoxandDesireinSamuelBeckett’sFiction(Basingstoke:PalgraveMacmillan,1991),56.105RubenBorg,‘PuttingtheImpossibletoWork:BeckettianAfterlifeandthePosthumanFutureofHumanity’,JournalofModernLiterature,35:4(2012),163-180:174.106SamuelBeckett,DreamofFairtoMiddlingWomen(NewYork:Arcade,1993),46,121.107Borg,‘PuttingtheImpossibletoWork’,169.108Morgan,Adorno’sConceptofLife,113.109HPorterAbbott,‘LateModernism:SamuelBeckettandtheArtofOeuvre‘LateModernism:SamuelBeckettandtheArtoftheOeuvre’,inAroundtheAbsurd,eds.RubyCohnandEnochBrater(AnnArbor:UniversityofMichigan,1990)73-96:75.110PorterAbbott,‘LateModernism:SamuelBeckettandtheArtofOeuvre’,77.111MarkPerdetti,‘LateModernRigmarole:BoredomasForminSamuelBeckett’sTrilogy’,StudiesintheNovel,45:4(2013),585.112Perdetti,‘LateModernRigmarole’,591.113TyrusMiller,LateModernism:Politics,FictionandtheArtsbetweentheWorldWars(Berkeley&London:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,1999),14.114Miller,LateModernism,14.