Spectral Landscapes: Absence, Trauma & Nationhood is a two-day inter-disciplinary conference hosted by the University of Reading which aims to explore questions of spectrality, trauma, hauntings and landscape in connection to national and social identity in Beckett’s works. The two-day event, which forms part of Reading’s annual Beckett Week and runs on 4-5 November, 2021,…
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This autumn sees the publication of two books which address the issue of translation in Beckett’s oeuvre. Samuel Beckett and Translation (Palgrave), edited by José Francisco Fernández and Mar Garre García adresses a number of themes including Beckett’s self-translations, translations of other authors and the poetics of translation, in a collection comprising thirteen chapters followed…
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Beckett and Buddhism is a new work from Cambridge University Press by long-time Beckett scholar and Society member Angela Moorjani . Drawing on letters and archives along with recent studies of Buddhist thought and Schopenhauer’s knowledge of it, the book charts the Buddhist concepts circling through Beckett’s visions of the ‘human predicament’. Moorjani offers an…
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Call for Papers – Deadline 31st July 2021 Spectral Landscapes: Absence, Trauma and Nationhood 4th-5th November 2021, University of Reading “places belong to our bodies and our bodies belong to these places. We learn how to orientate and re-orientate ourselves in relation to them and form internalized representations of them (cognitive maps) which play a…
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The latest on-line version of Waiting for Godot is the first project of American company The New Group Off Stage, and is described as ‘an experimental exploration of a storied play, bringing together a roster of lauded artists from across the cultural spectrum. A combination of theatrical invention and innovative filmmaking. At once both a…
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This issue once again reflects the COVID restricted nature of our times. Performances are on-line but show signs of adapting to the restrictions of form. We feature reviews of five different approaches to the problem and interview actor Marty Rea about his experience in the live broadcast of Happy Days. New Beckett Society President, Laura…
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A novel event to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s wedding to Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil is to be held in Folkestone, where the original ceremony took place. Running each day from 4-9 June, what is described as ‘an outdoor promenade event’ will include three specially commissioned works from Helen Oyeyemi, Rupert Thomson and Eimear McBride…
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The 2021 Beckett Brunch will take place on-line from Trinity College Dublin this Saturday, April 24, following its postponement last year, The bi-lingual event, founded and co-ordinated by Dúnlaith Bird since its inception, has been held in Paris until now and has always aimed at attracting as broad an audience as possible. In keeping with…
Read MoreThe conference Beckett and Italy, originally scheduled for last year, will now take place virtually on 24-26 May from “Sapienza” Universita di Roma. It will feature keynotes from Enoch Brater, Annamaria Cascetta, Carla Locatelli, John McCourt, Margaret Pfister and Dirk Van Hulle, as well as a special showing of two films by S. E. Gontarski.…
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The death has been announced of Anne Atik, author and close friend of Samuel Beckett’s. Along with her husband, the painter Avigdor Arikha and her two daughters, Alba and Noga, the family were frequent hosts to Beckett in their home in Paris. Her book How It Was: A Memoir of Samuel Beckett (1991) recounts the…
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