New publication: Beckett’s Political Imagination

 

Beckett’s Political Imagination

Emilie Morin

Hardcover: £31.99 / $39.99 9781108417990

E-book: 9781108284011,https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/becketts-political-imagination/D60A333EBB776619B4B7016AA1C99E3E

To order:http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/literature/english-literature-1900-1945/becketts-political-imagination#CfGyBJuKqAJEHA8i.99

 

‘This book is a revolution in Beckett studies: one will speak of before and after Emilie Morin. Thanks to her skills at unearthing forgotten archives, a new Beckett emerges, not just a political Beckett, but also a writer whose art, steeped in politics, preoccupied by the burning issues of the moment, never forgets the ethical limits it sets to itself. Here is an indispensable guide for all Beckett lovers.’ Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania

 

‘It seemed for a long while that a book able to address the difficult question of Beckett’s politics would, like Godot, never arrive. Emilie Morin’s Beckett’s Political Imagination offers a series of finely wrought and formidably well-researched reflections on the ways in which Beckett’s work is woven into its rich political contexts. In doing so, it produces a definitive account of the texture and purchase of his political imagination, which will have a transformative impact on our understanding of Beckett’s writing.’ Peter Boxall, University of Sussex

 

‘A work of passion and truth, in which the forms and styles of Beckett’s art are unerringly linked to his search for liberation. An audaciously social interpretation of this deeply personal writer.’ Declan Kiberd, University of Notre Dame

 

Beckett’s Political Imagination charts unexplored territory: it investigates how Beckett’s bilingual texts re-imagine political history, and documents the conflicts and controversies through which Beckett’s political consciousness and affirmations were mediated. The book offers a startling account of Beckett’s work, tracing the many political causes that framed his writing, commitments, collaborations and friendships, from the Scottsboro Boys to the Black Panthers, from Irish communism to Spanish republicanism to Algerian nationalism, and from campaigns against Irish and British censorship to anti-apartheid and international human rights movements. Emilie Morin reveals a very different writer, whose career and work were shaped by a unique exposure to international politics, an unconventional perspective on political action and secretive political engagements. The book will benefit students, researchers and readers who want to think about literary history in different ways and are interested in Beckett’s enduring appeal and influence.