Social Authority Within: Samuel Beckett’s Not ISocial Authority Within: Samuel Beckett’s Not I
- Other Titles
- Social Authority Within: Samuel Beckett’s Not I
- Authors
- 노애경
- Issue Date
- 2013
- Publisher
- 한국영미문화학회
- Keywords
- Samuel Beckett; Not I; internalization of social authority; Freud; guilt; neurosis; social integration
- Citation
- 영미문화, v.13, no.1, pp.59 - 81
- Indexed
- KCI
- Journal Title
- 영미문화
- Volume
- 13
- Number
- 1
- Start Page
- 59
- End Page
- 81
- URI
- https://scholar.korea.ac.kr/handle/2021.sw.korea/105065
- DOI
- 10.15839/eacs.13.1.201304.59
- ISSN
- 1598-5431
- Abstract
- Samuel Beckett's literary sympathies with underdogs enslaved to authoritative figures, found in his earliest plays, continued in a more or less subdued form in his later plays: Not I is a good case in point thematizing a social authority psychologically embedded within a subject. The incessant bouts of self-defense, or confessional, which Mouth carries out on a dark stage is directed to an inner authority. In Civilization and Its Discontents (1931), Freud’s diagnosis for individuals torn between the opposite calls of a social order-- which he called, by turns, civil society, civilization, and culture--and of individual freedom was a "neurosis." What Not I dramatizes seems to be this state of neurosis suffered by a subject bound to the contradictory calls of an internal social authority, which forces Mouth to carry on a confessional till she obtains a symbolically/linguistically viable social title of "I," and of her individualistic denial of the position("what?..who?..no!.. she!.."). Mouth’s ordeal on stage does not signify the psychological pressure of the social system, with its disciplinary measures of guilt, justice, and punishment, triumphs over individualistic irregularities and abnormalities, for her "maddened" confession will never see its closure. The opposite psychological forces at work inside Mouth, who is both "in" and "out[side]" "this world," will keep engaging in an eternal battle. In a way, she is a perfect parable about us humans living within a system, “discontent" and hung between the contradictory calls of individualism and social collectiveness.
- Files in This Item
- There are no files associated with this item.
- Appears in
Collections - College of Education > Department of English Language Education > 1. Journal Articles
Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.