Before the curtain falls : Samuel Beckett and E.M. Cioran
Samuel Beckett and E.M. Cioran are two of the twentieth century’s best-known pessimists. Yet few scholars outside of France are aware of the fact the two were friends for many years before going their separate ways. This thesis examined their friendship so as to clarify their political and philos...
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| Language: | English |
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University of British Columbia
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/2429/42193 |
| Summary: | Samuel Beckett and E.M. Cioran are two of the twentieth century’s best-known
pessimists. Yet few scholars outside of France are aware of the fact the two were friends
for many years before going their separate ways. This thesis examined their friendship so
as to clarify their political and philosophical agreements and disagreements. It did so
primarily by consulting the two writers’ correspondence and Cioran’s journal entries.
This research determined that Beckett and Cioran fell out as friends as a result of political
differences that first became apparent in the mid-1970s. (The former became politically
active in this decade and lost patience with the latter’s resignation.) The main conclusions
drawn from this study were that Beckett was politically progressive despite his pessimism
and that Cioran was unable to re-engage with politics following his youthful nationalism. |
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