Below and Beyond the Nightmare in Samuel Beckett,
with a Halo Effect on Film Cover Image

En deçà et au-delà du cauchemar chez Samuel Beckett, avec un effet de halo sur Film
Below and Beyond the Nightmare in Samuel Beckett, with a Halo Effect on Film

Author(s): Liviu Dospinescu
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Film / Cinema / Cinematography, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Presa Universitara Clujeana
Keywords: oneirism; dream; nightmare; mirror; double;

Summary/Abstract: The oneiric universe is present in almost all of Samuel Beckettʼs work, if only in the aspect of a form of reverie as found in modified states of consciousness, distinct from the usual states of mind, and which are often quite closeto trance or hypnotic states, or even, sometimes, to quite problematic psychologicalstates. At first glance, all of Beckettʼs characters are dreamers, but by dint offollowing them in their inner turmoil, we may discover the signs of a deeper if notfunding activity of the spirit. Oneirism in Beckett, when it is not the simplerepresentation of its phenomenality, can be part of an articulatory strategy ofsimulacra of deep experiences of the psyche, most of the time in connection withexistential questions which are neatly brought into the spectatorʼs field ofconsciousness, so that, with the guard down or in no way forced to “connect” to the genre of discourse, (s)he finally lets her/ himself be experientially inhabited by it.In the opening of this article, I will present a brief overview of the formal, aspectualdiversity of oneirism in a few short pieces by Samuel Beckett: …but the clouds…,Nacht und Träume, What Where and Ghost Trio. Then, most of the development isdedicated to the descriptive analysis of Samuel Beckett’s Film, which will highlightthe richness of dreamlike forms and contents from his uniquely non-verbaldiscourse. Its aspectual diversity ranges from philosophy with phenomenologicaland existential tints, to the anthropology of rites and popular beliefs, and even topsychoanalysis, for the sharpness of the figures of the work of the dream which relate to it, as surprised in the field of manifestations of this unique cinematographic work.

  • Issue Year: XIII/2023
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 105-127
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: French