Samuel Beckett's ‘Psychology Notes’ and The Unnamable

What is it about?

This essay reexamines Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable by treating his ‘Psychology Notes’ as part of the genetic dossier for this text. By developing a parallel between The Unnamable and ‘textbook’ psychoanalysis in terms of a shared obsession with abjection, the essay will demonstrate that some of the symptoms and obsessions suffered by the unnamable voice (‘prison psychosis’, ‘coprosymbolism’ and ‘genital discharge’) are traceable to the Notes. At the same time, the commitment to cure, control and explanation in psychoanalysis is resisted, and Beckett’s text ultimately stages a failed talking cure. The genetic identification of these intertextual connections is enhanced by the availability of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (BDMP). Using the same scholarly tool, the essay also examines some of the variations between the English and the French versions of the text, in order to shed further light on the significance of the Notes to the manuscript corpus of L’Innommable/The Unnamable.

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Why is it important?

This article contributes to the existing literature on Beckett studies by proffering a new perspective in Samuel Beckett's 'The Unnamable' with regard to his 'Psychology Notes'.

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