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Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable

Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable DAVID R OE Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable In 1970, as a graduate student at Oxford, I had the temerity to write to Samuel Beckett with a theory about his novel The Unnamable – and he replied. His answer is below. Why he replied is a mystery, although I’d mentioned I was working with Richard Ellmann, whom he of course knew, and who’d given me his Italian address. His mother’s maiden name was Roe, and that coincidence may have earned me his reply. He wrote back, very legibly : S. Margherita 25. 6. 70 Dear Mr. Roe Your reading seems justified in the sense that the opening Who now? receives no answer and that the programmatic Say I unbelieving is pursued throughout. The voice seeks rest in a number of “identities”, Journal of Beckett Studies 31.2 (2022): 204–207 Edinburgh University Press DOI: 10.3366/jobs.2022.0375 © Journal of Beckett Studies www.euppublishing.com/jobs Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable 205 existing or imagined for the occasion and finds none. To refer to this floating utterance or unnamable utterer as the narrator is perhaps a little strained but does not seem to me unpermissible. Perhaps I have not grasped your point. And, as http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Beckett Studies Edinburgh University Press

Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable

Roe, David
Journal of Beckett Studies , Volume 31 (2): 4 – Sep 1, 2022
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
0309-5207
eISSN
1759-7811
DOI
10.3366/jobs.2022.0375
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Abstract

DAVID R OE Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable In 1970, as a graduate student at Oxford, I had the temerity to write to Samuel Beckett with a theory about his novel The Unnamable – and he replied. His answer is below. Why he replied is a mystery, although I’d mentioned I was working with Richard Ellmann, whom he of course knew, and who’d given me his Italian address. His mother’s maiden name was Roe, and that coincidence may have earned me his reply. He wrote back, very legibly : S. Margherita 25. 6. 70 Dear Mr. Roe Your reading seems justified in the sense that the opening Who now? receives no answer and that the programmatic Say I unbelieving is pursued throughout. The voice seeks rest in a number of “identities”, Journal of Beckett Studies 31.2 (2022): 204–207 Edinburgh University Press DOI: 10.3366/jobs.2022.0375 © Journal of Beckett Studies www.euppublishing.com/jobs Samuel Beckett’s Guidance on The Unnamable 205 existing or imagined for the occasion and finds none. To refer to this floating utterance or unnamable utterer as the narrator is perhaps a little strained but does not seem to me unpermissible. Perhaps I have not grasped your point. And, as

Journal

Journal of Beckett Studies – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2022

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