Oxford University Press has just announced the publication of the latest in its Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs series. Titled Sadean Intertext and Aesthetics in Samuel Beckett’s Works and authored by Dr Elsa Baroghel, the book is described as ‘the first full-length study of the relevance of the Marquis de Sade to the works of Samuel Beckett’. It aims to provide ‘novel ways to make sense of Sade’s appeal for Beckett beyond his taste for the irreverent’ arguing that ‘Beckett found a world of discourses simultaneously nourished by and revolting against key philosophical and ideological traditions that had shaped the Enlightenment and from which Modernism would later emerge’.
The book ‘aims not simply at documenting Beckett’s interest in Sade, but also at piecing together a more comprehensive picture of the reasons for that interest, demonstrating that this Sadean evidence can be used as a meaningful index for a study of the evolution of Beckett’s thought, style, and aesthetics throughout his life, as well as providing new insights into the intertextual dimension of his writings’.
Full publication and ordering details available here.
The Samuel Beckett Society 