Abstract
Beckett’s Molloy provides an interesting standpoint from where to analyze the close connection that exists between the grotesque and the abject as well as the motif of the “strange loop,” while also humorously capturing the potential dehumanization, the perpetual disintegration and privation of the human becoming inhuman in an endless process of non-becoming. In this chapter, I focus on Molloy’s grotesque behaviors and the abject depictions of his body. I also discuss, through the character of Moran, how Beckett’s detectives can be seen as other “William Wilsons,” doubles who do not only mirror but also influence each other. The chapter concludes with a brief analysis of the use of language in the novel.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
As a brief reminder, Hofstadter defines the form of the “strange loop” in the following terms:
What I mean by ‘strange loop’ is […] not a physical circuit but an abstract loop in which, in the series of stages that constitute the cycling-around, there is a shift from one level of abstraction (or structure) to another, which feels like an upwards movement in a hierarchy, and yet somehow the successive ‘upward’ shifts turn out to give rise to a closed cycle. That is, despite one’s sense of departing ever further from one’s origin, one winds up, to one’s shock, exactly where one had started out. In short, a strange loop is a paradoxical level-crossing feedback loop. (2007, 101–102)
- 2.
- 3.
This passage echoes another one from the first part of the novel where Molloy implies that asking questions and thinking are one and the same thing: “For my part I willingly asked myself questions, one after the other, just for the sake of looking at them. […] I called that thinking. I thought almost without stopping, I did not dare stop. Perhaps that was the cause of my innocence” (Beckett 2009, 44).
- 4.
As for Moran, he lives in Turdy, which is as good a place to live for a “moron.” What is also striking is that the detective has a theory about how the name varies according to whether one is talking about a town, city , or region. As in agglutinative languages, suffixes are added to the name depending on the dimension of the place referred to. For instance, Bally is the name of the town and Ballyba that of the town “plus its domain and Ballybaba [that of the] domains exclusive of Bally itself.” And the same thing happens with Turdy which becomes Turdyba and Turdybaba (Beckett 2009, 128).
- 5.
One can also think of Molloy’s girlfriend called Edith, but also Ruth and Rose or Sophie who becomes Lousse.
- 6.
This is also what occurs when a word is repeated often enough: “it loses its meaning and becomes a moment of pure sound” (Abbott 2010, 215), suggesting that sound overcomes meaning.
Works Cited
Abbott, H. Porter. 2009. Immersions in the Cognitive Sublime: The Textual Experience of the Extratextual Unknown in García Márquez and Beckett. Narrative 17 (2): 131–142.
———. 2010. Garden Paths and Ineffable Effects: Abandoning Representation in Literature and Film. In Toward a Cognitive Theory of Narrative Acts, ed. Frederick Luis Aldama, 205–226. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, Mikhaïl M. 1984. Rabelais and His World. Trans. H Iswolsky. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Original Edition, 1968.
Beckett, Samuel. 2009. Three Novels: Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. New York: Grove Press. Original Edition, 1959.
Connor, Steven. 2007. Samuel Beckett: Repetition, Theory and Text. In Critical Studies in the Humanities, ed. Victor E. Taylor. Aurora: The Davies Group. Original Edition, 1988.
De Larquier, Jeanne-Sarah. 2004. Beckett’s Molloy: Inscribing Molloy in a Metalanguage Story. French Forum 29 (3): 43–55.
Frye, Northrop. 1970. The Nightmare Life in Death. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, ed. J.D. O’Hara, 26–34. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Hayman, David. 1970. Molloy or the Quest for Meaninglessness: A Global Interpretation. In Samuel Beckett Now, ed. Melvin J. Friedman, 129–156. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
Hofstadter, Douglas. 2007. I Am a Strange Loop. New York: Basic Books.
Holquist, Michael. 1971. Whodunit and Other Questions: Metaphysical Detective Stories in Post-War Fiction. New Literary History 3 (1): 135–156.
Janvier, Ludovic. 1970. Molloy. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, ed. J.D. O’Hara, 46–57. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Kern, Edith. 1970. Moran-Molloy: The Hero as Author. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, ed. J.D. O’Hara, 35–45. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press. Original Edition, 1980.
Lyotard, Jean-François. 1991. The Sublime and the Avant-Garde. In The Inhuman: Reflections on Time, 89–107. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Original Edition, 1988.
Merivale, Patricia. 1999. Gumshoe Gothics: Poe’s ‘The Man of the Crowd’ and His Followers. In Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism, ed. Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, 101–116. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
O’Hara, J.D. 1970. Introduction. In Twentieth Century Interpretations of Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, ed. J.D. O’Hara, 1–25. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Pavel, Thomas G. 1994. Naturalizing Molloy. In Understanding Narrative, ed. James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz, 178–198. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Poe, Edgar Allan. 1975a. Mesmeric Revelation. In The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, 88–96. New York: Vintage Books. Original Edition, 1844.
———. 1975b. William Wilson. In The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, 626–641. New York: Vintage Books. Original Edition, 1839.
Spanos, William V. 1972. The Detective and the Boundary: Some Notes on the Postmodern Literary Imagination. Boundary 2 1 (1): 147–168.
Todorov, Tzvetan. 1977. The Typology of Detective Fiction. In The Poetics of Prose, 42–52. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dechêne, A. (2018). Samuel Beckett’s Molloy. In: Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge. Crime Files. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94469-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94469-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94468-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94469-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)