Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx ― Tracing 'a Literary Fantasia'

Samuel Beckett once wrote that were he in the 'unfortunate position' of a critic studying his work, one of his points of departure would be the ideas of the seventeenth-century philosopher, Arnold Geulincx. Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx: Tracing 'a literary fantasia' is the first full-length study to document the extent of the influence Geulincx's philosophy had on Beckett's prose and late drama. Establishing itself as a reference point for Beckett's published and unpublished writings, David Tucker's study presents a clear, chronological exploration of Beckett's engagement with Geulincx, and of how this engagement marks, and is marked by, broader changes in Beckett's aesthetic thinking. By positioning close, interpretative philosophical readings alongside analyses of archival materials, Tucker sets out an affirmative and reconciliatory approach to divergent strands in contemporary Beckett Studies.

David Tucker is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sussexand currently teaches at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the editorof British Social Realism in the Arts since 1940 (Palgrave, 2011).