<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The study focuses on the short prose text Imagination Dead Imagine (1965) by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). It argues that while at first sight Beckett’s text appears to be a chaotic verbal blend with no coherence, a close reading discloses an actual underlying pattern (mandala) which gives the text a structure and enables the reader to “understand” it. The authors of the paper claim that mandala, as the structural pattern of the text, represents an attempt to find a resolution of the existential and universal conflict within man. On one hand, there is spiritual alienation (exemplified here by the dissolution of the language) and, on the other hand, one’s desire to be integrated with unity and return to the centre</p></abstract>

The study focuses on the short prose text Imagination Dead Imagine (1965) by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). It argues that while at first sight Beckett’s text appears to be a chaotic verbal blend with no coherence, a close reading discloses an actual underlying pattern (mandala) which gives the text a structure and enables the reader to “understand” it. The authors of the paper claim that mandala, as the structural pattern of the text, represents an attempt to find a resolution of the existential and universal conflict within man. On one hand, there is spiritual alienation (exemplified here by the dissolution of the language) and, on the other hand, one’s desire to be integrated with unity and return to the centre

Decoding Samuel Beckett’s language in Imagination Dead Imagine

Department of English and American Studies Faculty of Arts Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra Štefánikova 67 949 74 Nitra, Slovakia

Ars Aeterna

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Decoding Samuel Beckett\u2019s language in Imagination Dead Imagine"}

The study focuses on the short prose text Imagination Dead Imagine (1965) by the Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). It argues that while at first sight...

Decoding Samuel Beckett’s language in Imagination Dead Imagine

Published Online: Jul 13, 2015

Page range: 41 - 48

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/aa-2015-0006

© 2015

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.