Beckett and the Hypertextual Age: An Aesthetical Enquiry

Abstract

The values of literature and the identification of what can be constituted as a work of literature is a problem that is widely acknowledged in the domain of literature today. Distinguishing between what can be considered as literature and what is not literature lies at the very core of the identification process. The problem of identification faced by the academia today, in essence, deals with how to define the changes and the corresponding expansions in the field of contemporary literature today. In a wider perspective, this identification process of literature in hypertextual age is a question related to and founded on the very differences that one finds in each and every society since what is accepted by the said society defines the very nature and the subject of what is accepted as literature, be it text, audio or images. The question of how to discern what can be, or should be defined as belonging to the domain of literature in the strict sense of the meaning might seem somewhat obscure in the light of the changes and developments we are witnessing in today’s literary domain. Therefore distinguishing the very nature of literature in the hypertextual age is a question that should be answered through a theoretical approach, which will lead to relevant parameters from which to judge and identify literature in this hypertextual age. The paper will develop the argument through examining the relevance of Beckett’s works in respect to the hypertextual age. Becketts writings can be defined as being the first serious literature that opened the doorway to the hypertextual age in literature. This paper will try to discern the hypertextual aspects in Becketts works. Becketts works are actually referred to as belonging to the spectrum of modernity to post modern depending on the Researchers. The identification of the volubility that we find in Becketts works will lead to the identification of literature in the hypertextual age that we live in today. Defining what is literature is largely based on from what perspective one approaches the said materials that can be suggested as being literature. Becketts works in perspective not only narrows this field and is suggestive of the literature in the hypertextual age. Finally, the perspective of how to discern literature in this hypertextual age needs an objective approach rather than a subjective one, because the corresponding dilemma of discerning and locating literature in the hypertextual age of today has become a problem confronting not only the individual but also the subtle changes that one witness in today’s society.