Beckett as symbolist : Samuel Beckett and the theatre of the modern avant-garde
Date
2001
Authors
Sutherland, Timothy Brian
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Abstract
The thesis is essentially an investigation of the aesthetic conventions of the mise-enĀ-scene m Beckett 's theatre. In order to provide a frame of reference, Beckett's theatre is contextualized within the aesthetic conventions of the theatrical avant-garde in the modern period. The origins of avant-garde aesthetic conventions in the theatre of French Symbolism are examined and traced through various movements of the modern period, using drawing on play-texts, manifestos, and theories as well as first hand accounts of witnesses and participants of the events in question.Several important critical accounts of the period and of the avant-garde are also consulted. The conventions of the avantĀ-garde are examined in the light of Carl Jung's Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. Jung 's subsequent influence on Beckett' s theatre is also examined