Beckett and French, 1906-1946: A Study

Abstract

This thesis constitutes a study of Samuel Beckett and French during the years 1906-1946, covering that period from his earliest exposure to the French language up to the moment of his post-War linguistic turn .

Adopting a contextualising approach and embracing three key aspects of Beckett s engagement with French as a student of the language, a reader of French Literature, and a writer of original French-language texts , it proposes a significant revision of the most widely-held understanding of Beckett s motivations for turning to French in 1946, one which challenges the critical commonplace according to which this linguistic turn was motivated primarily by a desire for stylistic impoverishment. More broadly, this study contributes towards a better understanding of Beckett s engagement with French up to the moment of his post-War linguistic turn by enriching existing discussions of this topic and, by way of close textual readings, argues in favour of a substantial re-evaluation of the original, literary writings both published and unpublished that Beckett is known to have composed in French during the pre-War period and their role in his development as a writer.

This thesis is supplemented by the following appendices: For reference purposes, Appendix I provides the reader with transcriptions of texts that are the subject of close readings within the main body of the thesis and which are currently either unpublished or only available in an incomplete form; Appendix II, meanwhile, provides a complete list of set texts studied by Beckett as part of his undergraduate degree in French at TCD, as well as an overview of the surviving evidence for Beckett s first sketch for radio, which he prepared for French broadcaster Paris-Mondial.