Samuel Beckett as read by Pascale Casanova

What is it about?

This is an exposition of Pascale Casanova's book on Becket and a refutation of Casanova’s critics on the subject with the argument that most of them only consider her pronouncements on Beckett in The World Republic of Letters. Instead, the article proposes a rereading of her magnum opus based on her views about the Irish playwright who spent most of his life as a writer in Paris.

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Why is it important?

This is a close reading of Pascale Casanova's work on Samuel Beckett and her idea of the world republic of letters, with the argument that Beckett's French was not so much a dominant language as much as a language of “weakness,” which not only illustrates but also complicates Casanova’s thesis.

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