Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckettâs Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable

Laura LainvÃ¤e

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Chapter 12 Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckettâs Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable

In: Modernism beyond the Human

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Laura LainvÃ¤e

Laura LainvÃ¤e
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 257â278

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004549685_014

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Abstract

Called the last Modernist, Beckett tears the foundation of the conventional storytelling down to no plot, no beginning, no middle, no end, and to a severely disjointed syntax in The Unnamable. The similar undoing happens also to the human in the trilogy who evolves backwards from Ma(n)hood to Worm, from strength to vulnerability, and from vulnerability to unthinkable vulnerability. This paper challenges human exceptionalism and mastery over other species through exploring Beckettâs vulnerable narrators and their relations to logos as speech and reason, but also as âground.â On the one hand, human exceptionalism is challenged by non-human animals in the trilogy who possess attributes often considered only proper to man. On the other hand, human exceptionalism is undermined by Beckettâs human animals who fail to possess some major attributes given to humans â namely, superior intelligence, articulate speech, and an erect carriage. By bringing into question our self-centered requirements of excellence, and by challenging the relations between language, rationality, and mastery, Beckettâs trilogy invites its readers to reconsider the identity of the Occidental Man-Master and his right to mastery.

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Modernism beyond the Human

Transnational Perspectives

Series:Â Critical Posthumanisms, Volume: 4

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004549685

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 29 Sep 2023

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies

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Part 1 Modernism and the Nonhuman

Part 2 Modernist Animals

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Chapter 12 Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckettâs Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable

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Modernism beyond the Human

Transnational Perspectives

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Chapter 12 Animals and Logos in Samuel Beckettâs Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable