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Ludic Limbos

Beckett’s Belacqua and Intertextual Subversion in Molloy

In: Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui
Author:
Ayten Tartici Yale University USA New Haven, Connecticut

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Abstract

The minor character of Belacqua from Dante’s Purgatorio recurs often in Beckett’s early work. This article emphasizes the comic in its critical reading of Molloy, by studying how Beckett both adapted and parodied the language of the Commedia. Such an approach reveals the complex tension created by Beckett’s simultaneously parodic yet reverential appropriation of Dante’s language. This rhetorical strategy also points to a larger theme in the novel: subversive laughter aimed at theological, philosophical and literary authority.

Résumé

Un personnage d’ importance mineure dans le Purgatoire de Dante, Belacqua, se retrouve souvent dans les premières œuvres de Beckett. Cet article met l’ accent sur le comique dans Molloy: une telle approche révèle la tension complexe créée par l’ appropriation à la fois parodique et révérentielle de la rhétorique de Dante. Cette stratégie rhétorique pointe aussi vers un thème plus vaste dans le roman, celui des rires subversifs, visant l’ autorité théologique, philosophique et littéraire.

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