The latest issue of the Journal of Beckett Studies, vol. 34 no. 1 (April 2025) is now available to download from Edinburgh University Press. Co-edited by Conor Carville and Pim Verhulst, this is a special issue titled ‘Beckett and Aesthetic Form’ comprising of a range of essays which examine ‘the continuing influence that Beckett still…
Read More
Beckett’s work has inspired many contemporary visual artists, but in recent years it has been the area of artists’ film that has seen the clearest impact. On Friday 23rd of June 2023 The Samuel Beckett Research Centre at the University of Reading will present rarely screened work by several artists, including Vidéo by Stan Douglas (above right) and O…
Read More
Beckett’s Afterlives: Adaptation, remediation, appropriation Coming in February from Manchester University Press is a collection of essays dealing with the numerous and various adaptations of Beckett’s works. Edited by Jonathan Bignell, Pim Verhulst and Anna McMullan, the volume is is the first book-length study dedicated to this creative phenomenon. Its pre-publication description promisies a volume…
Read More
We are delighted to announce a two-conference series on the topic: Beckett & Italy: “old chestnuts”, new occasions. The first conference will take place at the University of Reading from 7-8 November 2019, and the second will take place at “Sapienza” Università di Roma in May 2020. The following is a call for papers for the upcoming conference at the University of Reading…
Read More
“Samuel Beckett came into the world on 13 April 1906. Not only was it an ill-fated Friday the 13th, it was also a Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, on which the Christian Church commemorates the Crucifixion of Jesus at Calvary. To the superstitiously-minded, any life begun under such ill-fated stars would seem destined for disaster. Throughout his career, Beckett kept thinking back to the unfortunate circumstances of his nativity and the future it seemed to hold. When Judith Schmidt – assistant to American publisher Barney Rosset of Grove Press, New York – wished him many happy returns on 13 April 1962, joking about it being a Friday, he wrote: ‘Very touched by your card and remembrance. I was born on Good Friday 13th, so can’t share your high opinion of the conjunction. And yet when I have the courage to take a quick look back I can see that the miracles haven’t been wanting and that but for them it’s in the better place I’d be for this long time’.” — Dirk Van Hulle and Pim Verhulst
Read More“New York, NY – 5 December 2018 – The Modern Language Association of America has announced the winner of the eleventh Modern Language Association Prize for a Bibliography, Archive, or Digital Project. The prize will be presented to Mark Nixon, of the University of Reading; Dirk Van Hulle, of the University of Antwerp; Pim Verhulst, of the University of Antwerp; E. Magessa O’Reilly, of Memorial University; and Vincent Neyt, of the University of Antwerp, for the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (www.beckettarchive.org).”
The Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading is pleased to announce that the next Beckett Research Seminar will take place on Saturday, 24 November 2018.
The event will be held in the Conference Room of Special Collections, University of Reading, the Museum of English Rural Life, Redlands Road, Reading.
Palgrave MacMillan releases a new collection of essays exploring the Nobel laureate’s relationship to modernist traditions, edited by Olga Beloborodova, Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst
Read More
First performed in 1953, Waiting for Godot is Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece and one of the most important dramatic works of the 20th century. The Making of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’/’En attendant Godot’ is a comprehensive reference guide to the history of the text.
Read More
Originally published in French as Malone meurt in 1951 and later translated into English by the author himself, Malone Dies is the second novel of Samuel Beckett’s Trilogy.
The Making of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Malone Dies’/’Malone meurt’ is a comprehensive reference guide to the history of the text. The book includes: a complete descriptive catalogue of available relevant manuscripts, including French and English texts, alternative drafts and notebook pages; a critical reconstruction of the history of the history of the text, from its genesis through the process of composition to its full publication history; a detailed guide to exploring the manuscripts online at the Beckett Digital Manuscripts Project at http://www.beckettarchive.org.
Read More
The Samuel Beckett Society 