Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Weakening Syntax: How It Is with Samuel Beckett’s Prose Poetry

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
British Prose Poetry

  • 437 Accesses

Abstract

This essay explores Samuel Beckett’s poetic experimentation in the short prose text How It Is (Comment C’est, 1961), completed in English in 1964. In a series of interviews with Lawrence Harvey dating from around this time (1961–1962), Beckett referred to his hope of finding ‘an adequate form’, which he then described as a ‘syntax of weakness’. In this essay, an argument is made to suggest that the weakened syntax of How It Is relates to Beckett’s readings of Dante’s Commedia. Moreover, particular attention is paid to Beckett’s linguistic playfulness, tonal inflections and syntactical ambiguities, as the text repeatedly offers its reader-listener a range of interpretive possibilities. In turn, the significance of these qualities in How It Is emphasise Beckett’s skill as a practitioner of the prose-poem.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Samuel Beckett , The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett , ed. Sean Lawlor and John Pilling (London: Faber & Faber, 2012).

  2. 2.

    Brian Clements and Jamey Dunham , eds., An Introduction to the Prose Poem (Danbury, CT: Firewheel Editions, 2009), 4.

  3. 3.

    See Adam Piette, Remembering and the Sound of Words: Mallarmé, ed. Proust, Joyce and Beckett (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).

  4. 4.

    Lawrence E. Harvey, Samuel Beckett : Poet and Critic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), 247.

  5. 5.

    Beckett, How It Is, ed. Édouard Magessa O’Reilly (London: Faber, 2009), 28.

  6. 6.

    Beckett, How It Is, 111.

  7. 7.

    There are ‘a few images on and off in the mud,’ Beckett, How It Is, 4.

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 43.

  9. 9.

    Beckett, “Texts for Nothing,” in The Complete Short Prose, ed. S. E. Gontarksi (Grove Press: New York, 1995), 153.

  10. 10.

    Beckett, How It Is, 117.

  11. 11.

    Ibid., 66.

  12. 12.

    Israel Shenker, “Moody Man of Letters, A Portrait of Samuel Beckett , Author of the Puzzling ‘Waiting for Godot’,” New York Times, 6 May 1956. Reprinted in Samuel Beckett : The Critical Heritage by Lawrence Graver and Raymond Federman (London, Henley and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979), 148.

  13. 13.

    Porter Abbott, “Farewell to Incompetence: Beckett’s ‘How It Is’ and ‘Imagination Dead Imagine’.” Contemporary Literature 11.1 (Winter 1970), 39.

  14. 14.

    Beckett, The Unnamable in Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable (London: Calder, 1994, repr. 1997), 418.

  15. 15.

    Beckett, How It Is, 3.

  16. 16.

    See also Sophie Ratcliffe, On Sympathy (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 192.

  17. 17.

    Beckett, How It Is, 93.

  18. 18.

    The phrase belongs to Martin Esslin but is reproduced by Stanley Cavel in his essay “Ending the Waiting Game: A Reading of Beckett’s Endgame.” See Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd, 86 and Cavell, “Ending the Waiting Game,” 115.

  19. 19.

    See Magessa O’Reilly, introduction, How It Is, xi.

  20. 20.

    Clements and Dunham, Introduction to the Prose Poem, 4.

  21. 21.

    Beckett, Texts for Nothing, 131.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., 154.

  23. 23.

    Leslie Hill, Maurice Blanchot and Fragmentary Writing: A Change of Epoch (London and New York: Continuum, 2012), 18–19.

  24. 24.

    Blanchot, “Les paroles doivent cheminer longtemps,” in L’Entretien infini, ed. Maurice Blanchot (Paris: Gallimard, 1969), 478–79.

  25. 25.

    Ibid., 481.

  26. 26.

    Ibid., 478.

  27. 27.

    Ibid., 486.

  28. 28.

    Ratcliffe, On Sympathy, 201. Ratcliffe is quoting A. Alvarez, Beckett, London: Woburn, 1973, 189.

  29. 29.

    Ibid., 202.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 197–200.

  31. 31.

    Beckett, How It Is, 55.

  32. 32.

    Shakespeare, The Tempest, v. i. 50–57, 1091.

  33. 33.

    Beckett, How It Is, 126.

  34. 34.

    Ibid., 120.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 123.

  36. 36.

    Ratcliffe, On Sympathy, 192.

  37. 37.

    Beckett, Texts for Nothing, 133.

  38. 38.

    SB, quoted and translated by Jean-Michel Rabaté. Rabaté, “Philosophizing with Beckett: Adorno and Badiou,” in A Companion to Samuel Beckett , ed. S. E. Gontarski, 102.

  39. 39.

    Beckett, Texts for Nothing, 103–104.

  40. 40.

    Magessa O’Reilly, introduction, How It Is, xi.

  41. 41.

    Beckett, How It Is, 93.

  42. 42.

    Ratcliffe, On Sympathy, 194.

  43. 43.

    Beckett, How It Is, 125.

  44. 44.

    Quoted in Ratcliffe, On Sympathy, 185. Toynbee, “Going Nowhere,” Observer, 18 December 1958, reprinted in L. Butler, ed., Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett (Aldershot: Scolar, 1993), 26.

  45. 45.

    Martha Nussbaum, Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), 308.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., 287.

  47. 47.

    Beckett, How It Is, 71.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., 72.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., 73.

  50. 50.

    Piette, Remembering and the Sound of Words, 218.

  51. 51.

    Beckett, How It Is, 23–25.

  52. 52.

    Ibid., 13.

  53. 53.

    Ratcliffe, On Sympathy, 215.

  54. 54.

    Beckett, How It Is, 36–37.

  55. 55.

    Charles Juliet, Rencontres avec Samuel Beckett (Paris: P. O. L. éditeur, 1999), 35–36.

  56. 56.

    Beckett, How It Is, 58.

  57. 57.

    Ibid., 31.

  58. 58.

    Ibid., 20.

  59. 59.

    Aristotle, On the Parts of Animals, trans. James Lennox (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001), 69.

  60. 60.

    Beckett, How It Is, 81.

  61. 61.

    Smith, “Bearing Witness,” in How It Is, 352.

  62. 62.

    Beckett, How It Is, 127.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., 3.

  64. 64.

    Shakespeare, The Tempest, v. i. 50–51, 1091.

  65. 65.

    Beckett, How It Is, 126.

  66. 66.

    Shakespeare, The Tempest, Epilogue, 6–10, 1094.

  67. 67.

    Ibid., lines 14–15. Both usages are substantiated by the OED and were active when Shakespeare was writing.

  68. 68.

    Beckett. How It Is, 104.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., 125.

  70. 70.

    Tom Driver, “Beckett by the Madeleine,” Columbia University Forum 4.3 (Summer, 1961). Reprinted in Samuel Beckett : The Critical Heritage (London, Henley and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961, repr. 1979), 220.

Works Cited

  • Abbott, H. P. “Farewell to Incompetence: Beckett’s ‘How It Is’ and ‘Imagine Dead Imagine’.” Contemporary Literature 11.1 (Winter, 1970).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, A. Beckett. London: Woburn, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aristotle. On the Parts of Animals. Translated by James Lennox. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beckett, Samuel. Nouvelles et textes pour Rien. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Comment c’est. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, the Unnamable. London: Calder, 1994, repr. 1997; Grove Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Samuel Beckett: The Complete Short Prose: 1929–1989. Edited by S. E. Gontarski. New York: Grove Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Company. London: Calder, 1996, repr. 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. How It Is. Edited by Magessa O’Reilly. London: Faber, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. The Collected Poems of Samuel Beckett. Edited by Sean Lawlor and John Pilling. London: Faber and Faber, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanchot, Maurice. L’espace littéraire. Paris: Gallimard, 1955.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Les paroles doivent cheminer longtemps.” In L’Entretien infini, edited by Maurice Blanchot, 478–479. Paris: Gallimard, 1969.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavell, Stanley. The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clements, Brian, and Jamey Dunham, eds. An Introduction to the Prose Poem. Danbury, CT: Firewheel Editions, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Driver, Tom. “Beckett by the Madeleine.” Columbia University Forum 4.3 (Summer, 1961). Reprinted in Samuel Beckett: The Critical Heritage. London, Henley and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1961, repr. 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esslin, Martin. The Theatre of the Absurd. London: Methuen, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, Lawrence E. Samuel Beckett: Poet and Critic. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, Leslie. Maurice Blanchot and Fragmentary Writing: A Change of Epoch. London and New York: Continuum, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Juliet, Charles. “Meeting Beckett.” Tri-Quarterly 77. Translated by S. Chamier. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University, 1989–1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde. Translated by Janey Tucker. Leiden: Academic Press, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Rencontres avec Bram Van Velde. Paris: P. O. L. éditeur, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Rencontres avec Samuel Beckett. Paris: P. O. L. éditeur, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nussbaum, Martha. Love’s Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piette, Adam. Remembering and the Sound of Words: Mallarmé, Proust, Joyce, Beckett. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabaté, Jean Michel. “Philosophizing with Beckett: Adorno and Badiou.” In A Companion to Samuel Beckett, edited by Stanley Gontarski. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratcliffe, Sophie. On Sympathy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shakespeare, William. The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works. Walton-on-Thames: Nelson, 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shenker, Israel. “Moody Man of Letters: A Portrait of Samuel Beckett, Author of the Puzzling Waiting for Godot.” New York Times, May 6, 1956. Reprinted in Samuel Beckett: The Critical Heritage. Edited by Lawrence Graver and Raymond Federman. London, Henley and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Russell. “Bearing Witness in How It Is.” In Borderless Beckett/Beckett sans frontières: Tokyo 2006, edited by Minako Okamuro. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2008.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toynbee, Polly. “Going Nowhere.” Observer, December 18, 1958. Reprinted in Critical Essays on Samuel Beckett, edited by L. Butler. Aldershot: Scolar, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Scott Annett

Authors
  1. Scott Annett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Jane Monson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Annett, S. (2018). A Weakening Syntax: How It Is with Samuel Beckett’s Prose Poetry. In: Monson, J. (eds) British Prose Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77863-1_9

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation