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Late and Belated Modernism: Duchamp…Stein.Feininger..Beckett

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Beckett and Modernism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature ((PMEL))

Abstract

In conversation with Charles Juliet Beckett said that he had seen ‘a lot’ of Marcel Duchamp on moving to Paris in 1938. He also spent time with Duchamp after fleeing Paris in 1939. Beckett and Duchamp’s careers cross in other ways in the early 1930s and the two men had many shared interests and enthusiasms. Drawing on well-known sources such as the Kaun letter and ‘Les Peintures des van Veldes’, together with archival sources such as Duchamp’s ‘Notes’ for ‘The Large Glass’ and essays from the surrealist magazine The London Bulletin, this essay will contend that avant-garde positions associated with Duchamp are detectable in Beckett’s novel Watt. Focusing on issues of nominalism, serialism, and an ambivalent relationship with Kant, I will read selected passages from the novel in order to demonstrate my argument. The essay will finish with some reflections on what this connection means for notions of Beckett’s Modernism.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Letter to Morris Sinclair, 20 May 1931, University of Reading, James and Elizabeth Knowlson Collection (UoR JEK D/1/7). See also LSB I 151n3.

  2. 2.

    One critic who has studied the relation between Beckett and Stein in more detail is Georgina Nugent-Folan. See Nugent-Folan (2013, 2015).

  3. 3.

    See Stein (1972) and (1993).

  4. 4.

    See Breton (1969). For more on Beckett’s relations with the magazine and its owner, see More Overbeck (2011). For the impact of the issue in England, see Jackaman (1989).

  5. 5.

    The quotation is from Baumeister (1931).

  6. 6.

    ‘Objet usuel promu à la dignité d’objet d’art’, as defined by Breton and Éluard (1938: 23).

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Conor Carville

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  1. Conor Carville
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Olga Beloborodova

  2. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Dirk Van Hulle

  3. University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Pim Verhulst

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Carville, C. (2018). Late and Belated Modernism: Duchamp…Stein.Feininger..Beckett. In: Beloborodova, O., Van Hulle, D., Verhulst, P. (eds) Beckett and Modernism. Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70374-9_4

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