Abstract
This chapter explores the work of the paradox, in (post)cognitive terms, as a means to trigger interpreters’ reassessment of the frames/ scripts/ schemata they process mentally and live by (cognitive structures generated through their successive processing of lived experiences alongside their exposure to a wide range of cultural products/ phenomena). The chapter discusses the denunciation of the suicide interdiction in Waiting for Godot as an example of Beckett’s radical cognitive reframing of conservative social injunctions. Herman’s notions of shock and anchoring effects and several other (post)cognitive narrative concepts are used to define the cognitive effects of exposure to Beckett’s texts as likely to trigger and nourish, in interpreters, a preference for more sophisticated, inclusive, and open frames/ scripts/ schemata, as well as the formation of automated rejection responses to oversimplification and manipulation.
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Notes
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Many cognitive and neurological studies published in the last decades explore this problem, from various perspectives. Ronquillo et al. show, through an analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI), that the amygdala, essential in regulating strong emotions like fear, activates to a higher degree in white study participants when shown black faces as compared to being shown white faces—which suggests that racist stereotypes assimilated through social exposure typically evolve into neural pathways categorizing people of colour as threatening. Activists fighting extremist violence and prejudice like Angela King, co-founder of Life After Hate, confirm that individuals with extremist views encounter major difficulties in changing their thinking patterns even if they are strongly committed to change (King, interviewed in Hayasaki). Kraft et al. discuss “motivated reasoning” (a strong investment in long-held values/ ideologies) as a barrier against some individuals’ acceptance of scientific facts. Ecker et al. show that false information presumed true at initial decoding influences memory and reasoning even after being debunked, despite most strategies used to eliminate that influence. Chang confirms the difficulty of correcting false information once it has been stored in one’s memory. De Keersmaecker and Roets show that individuals with lower cognitive abilities are significantly less likely to adjust their attitudes after “explicit disconfirmation of the false information” (107) than individuals with higher cognitive ability, who typically adjust to attitudes fairly close to those of the control group (not exposed to misinformation). As confirmed by these and other studies, the formation of biased frames/ scripts/ schemata (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) appears to lead to a priori judgements that may sidestep the processing of new/ corrected information.
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Readers may recall the 2010 media revelations—eerily resonant with Beckett’s enactments of the functioning of repression—that followed a string of Chinese workers’ suicides in a Foxconn factory connected to several North-American tech companies. A report by Moore for The Telegraph, based on information obtained by a team of seven undercover Chinese reporters who infiltrated the Foxconn Longhua plant, mentions the following measures taken by the company to avoid further incidents: “stringing nets between dormitory buildings to try to catch any further jumpers” and “blocking windows and locking doors to roofs and balconies.” Apparently, overtime had been, on average, 120 hours per worker per month in 2009 and was reduced to 80 hours per month in the wake of the suicides. Zhu Guangbing, who organized the investigation, reports having been told by workers that the long shifts caused their hands to “twitch at night” and to “mimic the [assembly line] motion” while “walking down the street” (see Moore for additional details). Exploitation and repression take a wide variety of forms, but their logic is always the same.
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Besides, Lucky is not entirely dead inside, as his subsequent speech demonstrates. Moreover, once “stirred” through the speech, Lucky falls to the ground and Pozzo has to enlist Vladimir and Estragon’s help to return him to his automaton state: “Raise him up! [Vladimir and Estragon hoist Lucky to his feet, support him an instant, then let him go. He falls.] … Don’t let him go! [Vladimir and Estragon totter.] Don’t move! [Pozzo fetches bag and basket and brings them towards Lucky.] Hold him tight! [He puts the bag in Lucky’s hand. Lucky drops it immediately.] Don’t let him go! [He puts back the bag in Lucky’s hand. Gradually, at the feel of the bag, Lucky recovers his senses and his fingers finally close round the handle.] Hold him tight! [As before with basket.] Now! You can let him go. [Vladimir and Estragon move away from Lucky who totters, reels, sags, but succeeds in remaining on his feet, bag and basket in his hands. Pozzo steps back, cracks his whip.] Forward! [Lucky totters forward.] Back! [Lucky totters back.] Turn! [Lucky turns.] Done it! He can walk” (43). This is another scene apt to trigger interpreters’ intense processes of reassessment of cognitive frames/ scripts/ schemata that reinforce subordination as a “natural” and mutually beneficial social arrangement.
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Ionica, C. (2020). Beckett’s “Script Multiplication and Enrichment”: Rejecting Toxic Disjunctions and Seeking Inclusivity. In: The Affects, Cognition, and Politics of Samuel Beckett's Postwar Drama and Fiction. New Interpretations of Beckett in the Twenty-First Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34902-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34902-8_5
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