Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)

TIBOR TÓTH Beckett and the Poetics of the Absurd

Beckett and the Poetics of the Absurd 39 Vladimir: What do they say? Estragon: They talk about their lives. Vladimir: To have lived is not enough for them. Estragon: They have to talk about it. Vladimir: To be dead is not enough for them. Estragon: It is not sufficient. (Silence.) Vladimir: They make a noise like feathers. Estragon: Like leaves. Vladimir: Like ashes. Estragon: Like leaves. (Long silence.) (WG, 63) One can hear Dante's souls in Purgatory in Beckett's dead voices, but as it has already been noticed by critics the differences are more relevant than the similarities. Dante's dead voices can hope for resurrection after Calliope has been invoked, while the sequence "Like leaves." "Like ashes." "Like leaves" responding to "Like leaves." "Like ashes." "Like leaves." clearly replaces the idea of time's passage contained in 'sand' when it is answered by "ashes", which in Endgame comes to signify the end of the world (32). The above passage from Waiting for Godot is illustrative of the more general model on which the play is based: the repetition of two nearly identical poetic passages following the announcement of the subject of meditation. It is not a monologue, that could stress the meditative value of the section, but it takes the more dynamic shape of a dialogue. This way the elements of figurative language are denied poetic coherence, the similes are restricted to Vladimir and Estragon's utterance and fall back onto themselves while the centripetal force of the intertextual meanings undercuts the possibility of any intelligible communication within the dramatic work. Parallel to this the dialogue maintains its course, it progresses. Its construction illustrates the multiple repetitions that support the larger scale juxtaposition of Vladimir-Estragon, Lucky-Pozzo, BoyGodot 'scenes' of the two acts. If we accept as a starting point the idea that Beckett's condensed, often paradoxical structures, models, lyrical recyclings', and linguistic twists of philosophical 'knots' are expressed through condensed poetic diction we have to agree with those who are tempted to read Joyce and Woolf as writing fiction enormously supported by the generative power of poetic diction. Beckett's approach is, however, of a different nature from that of Joyce or Woolf. Beckett's idea is that the aesthetic appreciation flourishes best when rational needs subside. This attitude in turn leads to the negation of Logos at the surface level, a 'recycled mask' hiding Eros in order to formulate the