Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

THE WORD IN CRISIS: Variations on a Theme by Samuel Beckett

THE WORD IN CRISIS: Variations on a Theme by Samuel Beckett THE WORD IN CRISIS: Variations on a Theme by Samuel Beckett Livio Dobrez What could it mean to say that the word is in crisis? Or that Beckett appears as the best of all possible canaries in the worst of all possible mineshafts? Does it mean that linguistic usage is being debased by the postmodern consumer juggernaut? Why should not language adapt constructively to any historical situation? In which case the crisis of the word would be referable to another, more fundamental, malaise. This essay examines the commodification and technologizing of language in late twentieth century western culture with Beckett's writing as a touchstone. Is the word in crisis?1 What could it mean to say so? After all, we're still talking and, if it comes to that, more than ever writing bad prose and bad verse. Parliamentary debate continues (presently on the inexhaustible theme of terrorism). And Tolkien, talk-back, airport fiction and journalism are doing very well. What, in any case, is bad about bad writing, bad speech, if there are plenty of people to read or to listen? And yet some of us who, it seems, have nothing better to do are uneasy about the future of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui Brill

THE WORD IN CRISIS: Variations on a Theme by Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui , Volume 14 (1): 595 – Dec 8, 2004

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/the-word-in-crisis-variations-on-a-theme-by-samuel-beckett-ZeuSkE4Z5c

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0927-3131
eISSN
1875-7405
DOI
10.1163/18757405-90000214
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

THE WORD IN CRISIS: Variations on a Theme by Samuel Beckett Livio Dobrez What could it mean to say that the word is in crisis? Or that Beckett appears as the best of all possible canaries in the worst of all possible mineshafts? Does it mean that linguistic usage is being debased by the postmodern consumer juggernaut? Why should not language adapt constructively to any historical situation? In which case the crisis of the word would be referable to another, more fundamental, malaise. This essay examines the commodification and technologizing of language in late twentieth century western culture with Beckett's writing as a touchstone. Is the word in crisis?1 What could it mean to say so? After all, we're still talking and, if it comes to that, more than ever writing bad prose and bad verse. Parliamentary debate continues (presently on the inexhaustible theme of terrorism). And Tolkien, talk-back, airport fiction and journalism are doing very well. What, in any case, is bad about bad writing, bad speech, if there are plenty of people to read or to listen? And yet some of us who, it seems, have nothing better to do are uneasy about the future of

Journal

Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'huiBrill

Published: Dec 8, 2004

There are no references for this article.