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2.WhyGombrowiczandBeckett
13
practicalreasons.Thetermsuggestssomesortofcontinuity,aprevailing
andpervadingthought,andcorrelateswiththeoverarchingideainthis
dissertationwhosefocusistheveryinterrelationsbetweenthenovelsby
GombrowiczandbyBeckett.
AnotheranalogybetweenGombrowiczandBeckettisacriticalone.
Formalstudies,fewthoughtheyare,haveusuallyfocusedonthenega-
tiveaspectsofthewriters’works.Toputitsimply,Gombrowiczand
Beckettexploitspecificgenreandnarrativeconventionsinvariablytoput
theminquestion,toviolateandsubvertthem-indeed,tonegatethem.
Theabove-mentioneddeconstructiveandpoststructuralistapproaches
includethesenegativeparadigms.Beckettisagoodcaseinpoint.For
agreatmajorityofscholars,fromPavelin1994toJacobHovindin2012,
BeckettbelongstoalineageofantinoveliststhatincludesMiguelde
Cervantes,AntoineFuretière,JonathanSwift,LaurenceSterne,and
DenisDiderot.5Inactuality,thefirstcriticevertocallBeckettanHanti-
novelist”wasChristineBrooke-RoseinherarticleHSamuelBeckettand
theAnti-Novel”inLondonMagazine[1958],althoughNadeauattrib-
utedthetermHnon-work”toMolloysixyearsbefore.Thereareother
criticsthatsubscribetothisview.GeraldPrincequitetellinglycalls
MolloyanHantinarrative”becauseitadoptstheHtrappingsofnarrative”
butHsystematically”callsHnarrativelogicandnarrativeconventions
intoquestion”[2003:6].Similarly,wemightassociateBeckett’sworks
withtermssuchasSeymourChatman’sHantistory”(anynarrativethat
Hmaybedefinedasanattack”onnarrativeconventions)[1980:56-59]
orDorritCohn’sHnon-narrative”(textsthatreducetheirmediatingappa-
ratus)[2000:97-100];elsewherewealsoencounterHanti-literature”or
Hantinarrativity”[seeAlber2002].Somecriticsgosofarastoarguethat
Beckett’snovelscannotbecallednovelsatall.MarekKędzierskiclaims
thatTheUnnamableisconsideredanovelsimplybecauseitisoneof
asequenceofnovels(intheHtrilogy”)andreferstosomeconventions
ofthenovelisticform;Hthisreferenceis,ofcourse,negative,”explains
thescholar[seeHayman1987;Pultar1996;Cohn2005].Whatmightbe
callednegativecriticisminBeckettstudiesisperhapsbestillustrated
byFederman’sobservations.InhisaptlytitledJourneytoChaoshepos-
its,HBeckett’snovelsseemto[be-B.L.]draggingusslowlyandpain-
fullytowardchaosandmeaninglessness”[qtd.inFederman1993:9;
seeFletcher1964:179].Icanonlyfeelsorryforanyreaderwhoshares
Federman’sreadingexperience.
