Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Like a Thing Forsaken: Beckett, Sebald and the Politics of Materiality

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Schauss, Martin (2018) Like a Thing Forsaken: Beckett, Sebald and the Politics of Materiality. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

[img]
Preview
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Schauss_2018.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer.

Download (3119Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3423027~S15

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This comparative study investigates representations of objects and materiality in the late modernism of Samuel Beckett and W.G. Sebald. The thesis responds to the recent proliferation of theories and literary analyses focused on objects, matter, and the nonhuman (such as “new materialisms” and “thing theory”), and specifically to what is arguably their unifying premise: the call for a “politics of materiality.” It argues that Beckett and Sebald’s works are defined by leftover things and material remainders, which express a negative, indeterminate quality that problematizes affirmative systems of relations and the recuperation of “matter” into narrative meaning. What their oeuvres share is a sense of historical belatedness and material depletion, tied to the European post-war moment and a mutual concern for issues of remembrance and recovery. Within this context, their aesthetic response to a history of violence is in conversation with both realist and modernist object categories, and poses a series of specific difficulties to object-oriented perspectives and the notion of a “politics of materiality.” Their works foreground the materiality of language, intensifying the inadequacy of mediation not just for the representation of things, but for any encounter with them. Regarding the respective author fields, the thesis contends that the focus on materiality encourages a critical reformulation of the problem of politics and history, a problem that persists through their work’s resistance towards systematisation, determination and resolution. It posits that a conception of “thingness” in their work expresses neither truth, essence, nor an ideal object, but rather a limit encounter that asks for a continual revision of historical and political signification. The thesis contributes to the recent critical recognition of a latent political potential in Beckett’s work, and disputes claims that Sebald’s novels encourage melancholic resignation in the face of catastrophe.

Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
P Language and Literature > PR English literature
P Language and Literature > PT Germanic literature
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Beckett, Samuel, 1906-1989 -- Criticism and interpretation, Sebald, W. G. (Winfried Georg), 1944-2001 -- Criticism and interpretation, Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism, Materialism
Official Date: September 2018
Dates:
DateEvent
September 2018UNSPECIFIED
Institution: University of Warwick
Theses Department: Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type: PhD
Publication Status: Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: Katz, Daniel ; Lawrence, Nick
Extent: 299 leaves : illustrations
Language: eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us