Cartesian Philosophy and the Beckettian Subject
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Cartesian philosophy occupies an important place in Beckett scholarship. It revolves around concepts such as the cogito, the subject, the object, and dualism of body and mind. Since the beginning of Beckett scholarship, Beckett’s works have been examined against the background of the Cartesian system of philosophy. Such an examination reveals several similarities and discrepancies between the worlds of Beckett and of Descartes. In Beckett’s first published poem, Whoroscope, René Descartes is placed at its center. Murphy clearly presents the significance of Cartesian philosophy in this novel and other works by Beckett. In this work, particularly the Occasionalist philosopher Arnold Geulincx, who pushed Cartesian question of how the mind and body are connected, holds an important place. Beckett presents the main character Murphy being acutely aware of the dualism of body and mind, without knowing, unlike Descartes, how they are connected. The playwright goes beyond the limits of Cartesian dualism and presents a tripartite structure of Murphy’s mind. Thus re-interpreting Cartesian and Geulincxian ideas, Beckett presents the world where Cartesian concepts exist only to be questioned. For that reason, in spite of the prevalence of Cartesian elements, Beckett’s position cannot simply be called Cartesian or Geulincxian, and his main character Murphy’s death symbolically caricatures the death of Cartesian man.
Abstract
Cartesian philosophy occupies an important place in Beckett scholarship. It revolves around concepts such as the cogito, the subject, the object, and dualism of body and mind. Since the beginning of Beckett scholarship, Beckett’s works have been examined against the background of the Cartesian system of philosophy. Such an examination reveals several similarities and discrepancies between the worlds of Beckett and of Descartes. In Beckett’s first published poem, Whoroscope, René Descartes is placed at its center. Murphy clearly presents the significance of Cartesian philosophy in this novel and other works by Beckett. In this work, particularly the Occasionalist philosopher Arnold Geulincx, who pushed Cartesian question of how the mind and body are connected, holds an important place. Beckett presents the main character Murphy being acutely aware of the dualism of body and mind, without knowing, unlike Descartes, how they are connected. The playwright goes beyond the limits of Cartesian dualism and presents a tripartite structure of Murphy’s mind. Thus re-interpreting Cartesian and Geulincxian ideas, Beckett presents the world where Cartesian concepts exist only to be questioned. For that reason, in spite of the prevalence of Cartesian elements, Beckett’s position cannot simply be called Cartesian or Geulincxian, and his main character Murphy’s death symbolically caricatures the death of Cartesian man.
참고문헌 (15)
- Beckett, Samuel, "Murphy" (1957), Grove P
- Beckett, Samuel, "Whoroscope. I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On: A Samuel Beckett Reader" (1976), Grove P
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- Descartes, René, "Discourse on Method. Descartes: Selected Philosophical Writings" (1988), Cambridge UP
- Gontarski, S. E., "The Intent of Undoing in Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic Texts" (1985), Indiana UP
- Gratton, Johnnie, "Introduction in : Subject Matters: Subject and Self in French Literature from Descartes to the Present", pp.1~27 (2000), Rodopi
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- Kenner, Hugh, "A Critical Study" (1961), U of California P
- Knowlson, James, "Damned to Fame: the Life of Samuel Beckett" (1996), Simon and Schuster
- Locatelli, Carla, "Unwording the World: Samuel Beckett’s Prose After the Nobel Prize" (1990), U of Pennsylvania P
- Mintz, Samuel, "Beckett’s Murphy: A ‘Cartesian’ Novel", Perspective, 2, pp.156~165 (1959)