Samuel Beckett and the Arts

Italian Negotiations

Edited by Davide Crosara, Mario Martino

Publication date:

11 June 2024

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

153x229mm
9x6"

ISBN-13: 9781839989667

Beckett’s dialogue with the arts (music, painting, digital media) has found a growing critical attention, from seminal comprehensive studies (Oppenheim 2000; Harvey, 1967, to name just two) to more recent contributions (Gontarski, ed., 2014; Lloyd, 2018). Research has progressively moved from a general inquiry on Beckett beyond the strictly literary to issues related to intermediality and embodiment (Maude, 2009; Tajiri, 2007), post humanism and technology (Boulter, 2019; Kirushina, Adar, Nixon eds, 2021), intersections with popular culture (Pattie and Stewart, eds., 2019). However, a specific analysis on Beckett’s relationship with Italian arts and poetry on one side–and on Italian artists’ response to Beckett’s oeuvre on the other–is still missing. The volume offers an original examination of Beckett’s presence on the contemporary Italian cultural scene, a stage where he became (and
still is) the fulcrum of some of the most significant experimentations across different genres and media. The reader will look at him as an “Italian” artist, in constant dialogue with the most significant modern European cultural turns.

Notes on Contributors; Introduction, Davide Crosara; Part One: Visual Encounters, Chapter 1. ‘The Pantheon at Rome or Certain Beehive Tombs’: Beckett’s Posthumous Architecture - Mark Byron; Chapter 2. Some Notes on Beckett and Michelangelo -Mariacristina Cavecchi; Chapter 3. ‘C’est l’Image la Dernière’: Samuel Beckett and Gastone Novelli - Davide Crosara; Part Two: Radio and Opera, Chapter 4. Beckett’s Neither, an ‘Anti-Opera’ in Rome - Yuri Chung; Chapter 5. Dante, Wartime Radio and the Italia Prize -Pim Verhulst; Part Three: Poetic Voices, Chapter 6. Beckett the Troubadour - Mario Martino; Chapter 7. The Empty House: Watt’s Leopardi Traces- Will Davies; Part Four: Echoes. Translations, Reverberations; Chapter 8. Beckett Resonating in Italy. Which Text, Whose Voice?- Rossana Sebellin; Chapter 9. Beckett After Language - Mena Mitrano

“The approach to the problem of Samuel Beckett’s interest in Italian culture is new and original. The analysis of far less-noticed aspects both in juvenile and mature Beckett’s works is accurate and persuasive. The research of allusions above all in not only prominent artists and in not only great arts but in less-important Italian artists (Gastone Novelli) and popular genres (opera and radio) is very important. The intersection between theory and analysis is interesting. The organization of the contents is very good.” —Annamaria Cascetta, Professor of History of Theatre, Università Cattolica, Milan, Italy.