Please repeat the image in full somewhere on the back cover.'Spanning a period of two decades, this captivating collection of essays displays the impressive range of S. E. Gontarski's erudition and of his accomplishments as one of the world's leading Beckett scholars. Experienced in fields ranging from textual scholarship to performance studies, and informed by a wide array of literary theories, he not only scrutinizes the full generic scope of Beckett's works, but also constantly keeps his finger on the pulse of critical trends that have shaped Beckett studies into what they are today.'Dirk Van Hulle, University of AntwerpS.E. Gontarski's finest essays on the work of Samuel Beckett over forty-years Representing a profound engagement with the work of Samuel Beckett, this volume gathers the very best of Stan Gontarski's Beckett criticism on practical, theoretical and critical levels.
Such a range suggests a multiplicity of approaches to a body of work itself multiple, produced by an artist who underwent any number of transformations and reinventions over his long writing career. Many of the essays collected here explore Beckett's debt to his age, himself both a product of a culture in transition and an agent of change. But much of Beckett's creative struggle was to find a new way, his own way. Most of the essays that comprise this volume detail that struggle, toward a way we now call Beckettian. S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University where he edited the Journal of Beckett Studies from 1992â2008.
He currently serves as Co-Editor for the Journal. Among his recent books are: The Beckett Critical Reader: Archives, Theories, and Translations (2012), The Edinburgh Companion to Samuel Beckett and the Arts (2014) and Creative Involution: Bergson, Beckett, Deleuze (2015).Cover image: Samuel Beckett at home in Paris, 1963 © photo Lütfi ÃzkökCover design:[EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.comISBN 978-1-4744-1440-1Barcode.