1- Ph.D Student. Department of English Language and Literature, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran
2- Department of Language and Literature, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran ,asadi@khu.ac.ir
2- Department of Language and Literature, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran ,
Abstract: (11 Views)
Objective: This study aims to investigate the paradox of “absurdly obtrusive” meaning in Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. It explores how Beckett dismantles conventional conscious narratives and stable forms of “existents” to present a raw, dynamic immersion in “mere existence” through a radical shift in linguistic structure.
Methods: Utilizing a structural and post-structural literary framework, the study analyzes Beckett’s theatricalization of the absurd by focusing on the “here is/there is” instants of being. Specifically, it applies Jakobson’s concepts of the “axis of selection and substitution” versus the “axis of combination,” examining how the text employs metonymic language to bypass hegemonic linguistic appropriation.
Results: The analysis reveals that The Unnamable functions by surrendering intentional authorial appropriation in favor of a polysemic combination of unintentional voices. By deploying an “unconditional language” that avoids traditional narrative boundaries, the text successfully presents characters that are “unsaid, unread, or unbeen.” This linguistic strategy creates a state of immersion that penetrates the reader’s consciousness by refusing to provide a fixed, stable subject.
Conclusions: The study concludes that the absurdity in Beckett’s work is not a lack of meaning, but rather an obtrusive linguistic presence that shifts the target of language from “modes of being” to “mere existence.” Through metonymic expansion and the dismantling of the hegemonic axis of selection, Beckett transforms the absurd into a dynamic space where the unnamable is experienced rather than categorized.
Methods: Utilizing a structural and post-structural literary framework, the study analyzes Beckett’s theatricalization of the absurd by focusing on the “here is/there is” instants of being. Specifically, it applies Jakobson’s concepts of the “axis of selection and substitution” versus the “axis of combination,” examining how the text employs metonymic language to bypass hegemonic linguistic appropriation.
Results: The analysis reveals that The Unnamable functions by surrendering intentional authorial appropriation in favor of a polysemic combination of unintentional voices. By deploying an “unconditional language” that avoids traditional narrative boundaries, the text successfully presents characters that are “unsaid, unread, or unbeen.” This linguistic strategy creates a state of immersion that penetrates the reader’s consciousness by refusing to provide a fixed, stable subject.
Conclusions: The study concludes that the absurdity in Beckett’s work is not a lack of meaning, but rather an obtrusive linguistic presence that shifts the target of language from “modes of being” to “mere existence.” Through metonymic expansion and the dismantling of the hegemonic axis of selection, Beckett transforms the absurd into a dynamic space where the unnamable is experienced rather than categorized.
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