SamuelBeckettandWorldLiterature
UniversityofKent,4-5May2016
KeynoteSpeakers
ProfessorStanleyE.Gontarski
ProfessorFábiodeSouzaAndrade
GuestArtist
AshishAvikunthak
Sponsors
CentreforModernEuropeanLiterature
FacultyofHumanitiesResearchFund
DepartmentofComparativeLiterature
DepartmentofModernLanguages
DepartmentofReligiousStudies
TheSchoolofEnglish
GulbenkianCinema
UFRN,CentrodeCiênciasHumanas,LetraseArtes
Organisers
SelvinYaltir,RosanneAraújo,TituChakraborty
ConferenceReport
The ‘Samuel Beckett andWorld Literature’ international conference beganwith the idea of
rethinking Samuel Beckett’sworks in light of recent developments inworld literature. The
word‘and’inthetitlewasthuscentraltoitsconceptualisation:theconferencenotonlyhoped
to explore Beckett’s place in literature, theatre studies, performance and ]ilm around the
world,butitsintentionwasalsotoaddresssomeoftheongoingdebatesforandagainstthe
disciplineofworldliteraturefromaliterary,socio-politicalandculturalperspective.
The conference hosted speakers and participants from sixteen different countries:
IrelandandmainlandEuropetocountriessuchasBrazil,China, IndiaandtheUnitedStates.
The panellists consisted of independent scholars, students, lecturers, theatre directors, and
experimental ]ilmartists.Thiswidegatheringdemonstratedthe internationaldissemination
ofBeckett’sworks,andWaitingforGodotinparticular.Thepapersanddiscussions,moreover,
brought to attention the variousways inwhich hiswritings have been translated, adapted,
often appropriated and re-created in new contexts and in different cultures, frequently
building a tension with Beckett’s directorial precisions ever since the ]irst performance of
GodotinParis.
TheSBWLconferencebeganon4MaywithProfessorShaneWeller’sintroductiontothe
conceptofworldliterature.StartingwithGoethe’sfamouscommenttoEckermannaboutthe
emergenceofWeltliteratur, the introductory lecturehighlighted the re-con]igurationsof the
conceptoverthelastcentury,uptotheongoingdebatesbetweenDamroschandApterinthe
twenty-]irst century.This initiated aplatform to exploreBeckett’s place inworld literature:
not just as a Nobel Laureate or modernist commodity of European and North American
syllabuses,butasawriterwhogains(orfailstogain)fromtranslationandcirculationwithin
thespaceandrepublicofworldliterature,andthefamiliaryetforeignnatureofwhoseworks
resonate(orfailtoresonate)acrosscultures.
Professor Stanley E. Gontarski was next to present the ]irst keynote lecture on ‘The
Remains of theModern: Samuel Beckett's Elsewhere’. The paper ]leshed out the important
shift inBeckett'scareer,movingawayfromJoycean ‘omniscienceandomnipotence’andinto
theBeckettian ‘elsewhere’,whichheexplainedasaparadoxical stateof ‘in-betweenness’: at
thesametimehereandthere,rootedandrootless,nowhereandeverywhere,andsoon.This
displacement in Beckett’s works proved central throughout the rest of the conference and
discussions that ensued. The panel on ‘Beckett, (In)Corporeality’ on Day 2, for instance,
elaboratedtheantitheticalnatureofBeckett’scorpus:whileDorottyaJászayinvestigatedthe
BeckettianbodyinperformanceandEleanorGreenstudiedthefailuresinbodilyfunctionsin
Beckett’s prose, Dr. Arthur Broom]ield, in contrast, discussed pure language and the
Beckettianvisionas‘freedofalltrappingsofthecorporeal’.
ThekeynotelecturebyProfessorFábiodeSouzaAndrade,alsoonDay2,establishedthe
longevity of Beckett’s impact on contemporary Brazilian experimental theatre and ]ilm,
through video clips and discussions on adaptations and cinematic recreations of Beckett’s
works.Thelecturewasdirectlyrelevanttothecentralthemesthattheconferencewasaiming
to thrash out, and it led to an enthusiastic Q&A session and also re]lected the approach of
severalotherpapers.
During the ]irst panel on Day 1, entitled ‘Transnational Beckett’, Dr. Edward Bizub
discussed the intertextual religious allusions in Beckett’s Murphy and other writings in
comparisonwithworkssuchasTheHeartofDarknessandAPassagetoIndia,drawingfrom
postcolonial theory; Dr. Douglas Atkinson next discussed the impact of Beckett and
modernismonJapan’sKojinKaratani;andJamesBaxterexaminedBeckett’sworksinlightof
Americanpostmodernism.
As part of the panel on ‘Transcultural Technology’, Julie Bénard considered Beckett’s
theatre as a ‘hypermedium’ and examined Atam Egoyan’s Eh Joe as an intermedial
transpositionof thetelevisionplay.Dr. JeanAntoine-Dunne,whowasunableto joinus from
theUniversity of theWest Indies andwhose paperwas read by Selin Siral, drew a parallel
betweentheCaribbeanpoetKamauBrathwaite’sworksandBeckett’sproseandtheatre,using
Deleuze’snotionsofnooshock.Dr.PaulMarch-RussellexploredBeckett’sshortprose‘TheLost
Ones’ in light of science ]iction and late modernism, and compared the frustrated desires
representing the “middle passage” between minority and mass culture with tropes in the
worksofBrianAldiss.
In the panel on ‘Beckett’s International Reciprocation’ on Day 2, we moved from Dr.
Snežana Kalinić’s paper exploring the postmodernist ‘sequels’ of GodotinSerbiantheatre,
toaHindumythologicalresponseinDr.PriyankaVaidya’sanalysisofkarmayoga,andended
withRobertMurtagh’sinvestigationintoHispanicsimpatíathatrejected Beckett’s works due
to the lack of cultural resonance. In the parallel session on ‘Beckett and the Cosmopolitan
Avant-Garde’, Dr Bartosz Lutostański discussed Beckett’s influence on experimental post-
war Polish cinema; Juan Luis Toribio Vazquez spoke of Beckett’s Godot in light of its
circularity in lightof itsrelationto theconceptofWorldLiterature;andMatthieuProtinre-
examinedtheinitialreceptionofGodotinParisthroughBeckett’s'Irishness'.
In addition to the transnational approach to Beckett’s works, the conference held a
special roundtable panel on ‘Renegotiating Beckett’s Ireland’, where Moonyoung Hong,
Bernadette Fox, Holly Anna Furey, Eimhin Walker, Kurt McGee and Chris J. Wrycraft from
Trinity College, Dublin, explored Beckett’s link to Ireland during his lifetime and his more
recentrebirthinDublin.The]irstfourpaperswerecentredaroundtherecentIrishPanPan
Theatre production of Beckett’s radio play All That Fall; the penultimate paper explored
Beckett’s commodi]ication as a national Irish treasure; and the last looked at the writer’s
persistenttracesofIrishhumourandthecommonelementofself-referentialityfoundinhis
Irish predecessors and contemporaries. The panel led to a thought-provoking discussion
regardingBeckett’sambiguoustieswithhisnativecountry.
The last panel ofDay1was entitled: ‘Beckett, Translation, andWorldLiterature’. This
beganwithDr.PatriciaNovilloCorvalán’spaperthataddressedkeyissuesinworldliterature
throughBeckett’stranslationsofMexicanpoetrypublishedintheanthologycommissionedby
UNESCO, with Octavio Paz as the editor. Next, Dr. Llewellyn Brown reconsidered the very
important topicofBeckettasaself-translatorworking inFrenchandEnglish,usingextracts
fromTextespour rienand Texts forNothing todemonstrate the ‘postmodern rejectionof an
“original”text’.WeiZheyuandMaryO’Byrnefollowedthisstrandofthoughtindeliveringtheir
jointpaperandperformanceentitled: ‘100%GuaranteedBeckett:HatItBeenBilingual’.The
twoposited through their practice-based research thatmuchofBeckett’sworks—Lucky’s
speech inGodot, for example, in English andwhen translated into Chinese— resisted any
singleexegeticalparadigmorhegemonicvoice,andparticularlythetotalisingeffectof‘global
culture’.
AttheendofDay1,wereturnedtothequestionofBeckettandworldliterature,withthe
screening of Ashish Avikunthak’s feature ]ilmKalkimanthankatha (2015) at the Gulbenkian
Cinema.Inhis]ilm,theIndiancinematographer,whoisamongstthepioneersofthe‘cinemaof
prayoga’,translatedandrelocatedthedialogueinGodotattheMahaKumbhMelainAllahabad,
areligiousfestivalthattakesplaceeverytwelveyears,withtwoBengalitravellerswaitingfor
themanifestationofKalki.VladimirandEstragonareherere-conceptualisedinanorth-Indian
religio-ritualisticsetting,buzzingwiththeunseenvoicesofmillionsofhomelesssanyasinsor
travelingpilgrimsinthebackground.TheQ&Asessionwiththeartistattheendestablished
thatmorethananadaptation,the]ilmisanewartisticcreationofapseudocouplediscussing
everythingfromsunyataandavatars,tofemininityandMaoTse-tung’s‘LittleRedBook’,while
the ritualistic movements the characters performed captured the highly localised yogic
practices (reminiscent of ‘do the tree’ in Beckett). The narrative and disjointed ]ilmic
structure,moreover,consistedofapatternofrepetitionandcircularitycontainingparatactic
conversations, echoing Beckett’s play, which indicated an intermedial transmission of the
Beckettianformfromtheatreintoexperimentalcinema.
Theclosingpanelon ‘BeckettandtheGlobalSocio-PoliticalField’beganwithEva
Kuras’examinationofGodot’stopographyandits liminalsenseoftimeandplace.Thepaper
related the simultaneously abstract yet local aspect ofGodotwith its translatability across
sociopolitical divides. The following paper by Richard Pettifer and Andrew Fuhrmann
consideredBeckett’slegacyfromanOrwellianpointofviewwiththesuggestionthatBeckett’s
art of failure passively resisted being pigeonholed into any political system, including the
global anti-capitalist cause. In the concluding paper, Dr. Mischa Twitchin shared his own
artisticadaptationin]ilmofBeckett’s‘Catastrophe’toexpresstheneedtodissociateBeckett
frompreconceivednotionsenforcedbydictatorialsocieties.The threepapersraisedseveral
verycentralquestionswithregardstoBeckettstudiestoday,someofwhichwerebroughtup
duringtheQ&Athatensued.
Thesuccessofthisclosingpanelandtheconferenceasawholelayinthewaythatthey
problematisedanysimplisticunderstandingofworldliterature–fromwhateverculturaland
multidisciplinary perspective –with Beckett at the centre. The panelists, keynote speakers,
artists (including actors), directors and cinematographers all addressed some of the key
ongoing debates in the ]ield of world literature and Samuel Beckett, while also raising the
stakesforfuturemodesofenquiry.
NoteofThanks
Apart fromthe immensesupportandcontributionwereceived fromtheCentre forModern
EuropeanLiterature,wearealsoverygratefultotheFacultyofHumanitiesfortheResearch
Fund, the Vice Chancellor’s Discretionary Fund, and the Departments of Comparative
Literature, Modern Languages, Religious Studies, the School of English at the University of
Kent,andtheUFRNinBrazil,withoutwhosevaluablecontributionswewouldnothavebeen
able to host this event. We are also very grateful for all the help, advice, and support we
receivedalongthewayfromProfessorShaneWeller,thekeynotespeakersandspecialguest,
Kelly Leonard from Kent Hospitality, Rebecca Brown and Liz Moran from the Gulbenkian,
Melanie Dilly, Jo Spoon, Angelos Evangelou, and Juan Luis from the Department of
Comparative Literature, Jacqui Martlew, Selin Siral, the ]inance team at SECL, and all the
conferencedelegates.
OtherDetails
Belowisthelinktotheof]icialconferencewebsite.Itcontainsthecallforpapers,andallthe
informationonkeynotespeakers,organisers,sponsors,andotherdetails:
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/beckettworldlit/
Linktothe]inalconferenceprogramme,withallthepaperabstractsandshortbioslinkedto
thepapertitles:https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/beckettworldlit/category/conference-programme/
Linktodownloadtheposter,designedbySelinSiral,andthePDFprogramme:
https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/beckettworldlit/]iles/2015/10/SBWL-Final-Programme-.pdf
SelectedphotographsfromtheconferenceareavailableonGoogledriveandcanbeaccessed
through:https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_Jpqg9mXmjLemRIUjB6SG9WY2s
FeedbackfromParticipants
‘Theconferencedevelopedathemethat isvery important inrelationtoBeckett’swork,and
whichwasexplored fromamultiplicityofpointsofview.Thecontributionswereextremely
enriching.Personally,IalsoappreciatedtheinclusionofparticipantsfromFrance:itisanoft-
neglected dimension of Beckett studies, but which is important for the diversi]ication of
critical approaches. The atmosphere was very warm and convivial, not least owing to the
meticulous work of preparation, and the very attentive presence and involvement of the
organisers.’-LlewellynBrown,LycéeinternationaldeSaint-Germain-en-Laye.
‘Theconferencewasverydiverseandexciting,reallyhonouringtheideaofworldliterature.’-
ProfessorFábiodeSouzaAndrade,UniversityofSãoPaulo,Brazil.
‘AlthoughIwasonlyabletoattendpartoftheconference,whatstruckmewasa)thediversity
of the papers, applying a range ofmethods tomost aspects of Beckett's oeuvre, and b) the
warmth and camaraderie of the event. Both are testimony to the hardworkput in by the
organiserstoensurethatthiswasawell-coordinatedandwell-receivedoccasion.’-Dr.Paul
March-Russell,UniversityofKent.