This essay adopts both philosophical and dramatic analysis points of view. It explores the theme of the tragic within the most emblematic texts of Beckett from such an aspect. It traces the tragic in the representation of the unavoidable limit as experienced by the characters on a psychological, anthropological and ontological level. What is the reaction in Beckett to the tragic conscience? It is not the guilty and destructive rebellion of the classical hero belonging to tragedy. It is rather the acceptance of finiteness through humorous laughter. As Beckett himself described it, it is a “dianoetic laughter” which perhaps opens the path to a principle of responsibility, the only salvation for humankind in this small drifting universe.
Cascetta, A., Dianoetic Laughter in Tragedy: Accetping Finitude - Beckett's Endgame, in Gontarski, S. (ed.), The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburg 2014: 423- 432 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/54492]
Dianoetic Laughter in Tragedy: Accetping Finitude - Beckett's Endgame
Cascetta, Annamaria
2014
Abstract
This essay adopts both philosophical and dramatic analysis points of view. It explores the theme of the tragic within the most emblematic texts of Beckett from such an aspect. It traces the tragic in the representation of the unavoidable limit as experienced by the characters on a psychological, anthropological and ontological level. What is the reaction in Beckett to the tragic conscience? It is not the guilty and destructive rebellion of the classical hero belonging to tragedy. It is rather the acceptance of finiteness through humorous laughter. As Beckett himself described it, it is a “dianoetic laughter” which perhaps opens the path to a principle of responsibility, the only salvation for humankind in this small drifting universe.
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