Beckett, Literature and the Ethics of Alterity

SHANE WELLER is a Lecturer in Comparative Literary Studies in the School of European Culture and Languages at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. He is the author of A Taste for the Negative: Beckett and Nihilism (2005).

'The book offers a challenge to the deconstructive readings of Benjaminian translation, an exhaustive account of the ethics of comedy, and an insightful survey and analysis of 'feminine alterities', with useful readings of Irigaray, Cixous, and Kristeva. Weller's performance of the anethical throughout the text produces an argument that will come as a surprise to many Beckett critics - a surprise because it maintains a critical reading that is neatly positioned 'between' the conventional approaches to Beckett and ethics. I strongly recommend this book.' - Professor Richard J. Lane, Malaspina University-College, Canada 'This is an extremely well-researched and thought-out work of Beckett criticism. The chapter organization in which each of the three chosen themes is treated first from a theoretical perspective, followed by specific examples taken from Beckett, is limpid and the argument always clearly signposted. This makes the book accessible even to the reader unfamiliar with the vast array of Western thought Shane Weller summons effortlessly.' - Helen Penet-Astbury, Etudes irlandaises

• Preface Introduction: Literature and Alterity PART I: IN OTHER WORDS - ON THE ETHICS OF TRANSLATION Translation and Difference: Dispatching Benjamin Translation and Negation: Beckett and the Bilingual Oeuvre PART II: THE LAUGH OF THE OTHER - ON THE ETHICS OF COMEDY Pratfalls into Alterity: Laughter from Baudelaire to Freud and Beyond Last Laughs: Beckett and the ' risus purus ' PART III: THE DIFFERENCE A WOMAN MAKES - ON THE ETHICS OF GENDER Feminine Alterities: From Psychoanalysis to Gender Studies 'As If the Sex Mattered': Beckett's Degenderations Conclusion: Beckett and the Anethical Notes Bibliography Index