The Metaphysical Vision: Arthur Schopenhauer's Philosophy of Art and Life and Samuel Beckett's Own Way to Make Use of It

261 Pages·2008·3.47 MB·English

by  Beckett

The Metaphysical Vision
PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Ulrich Pothast

The Metaphysical Vision

ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER’S
PHILOSOPHY OF ART AND LIFE
AND SAMUEL BECKETT’S OWN
WAY TO MAKE USE OF IT

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pothast, Ulrich.
[Eigentlich metaphysische Tätigkeit. English]
The metaphysical vision: Arthur Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of art and life
and Samuel Beckett’s Own way to make use of it / Ulrich Pothast
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Schopenhauer, Arthur, 1788–1860—Aesthetics. 2. Aesthetics,
Modern—19th century. 3. Beckett, Samuel, 1906–1989. I. Title.
B3148.P6613 700.1—dc22 2008027532
ISBN 978-1-4331-0286-8

Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data is available
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of the Council of Library Resources.

© 2008 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
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All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
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Printed in the United States of America
For Kurt Tetzeli von Rosador
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements xi
References to Beckett’s and Schopenhauer’s works xiii
Introduction 1
1. “Metaphysical vision” 1
2. Schopenhauer out of fashion; Beckett his student 7
3. Intentions and limits 16
Part One Metaphysics of art and life 21
Chapter I On Schopenhauer’s aesthetics and world view 23
4. Premises from Schopenhauer’s theory
of knowledge and metaphysics 23
5. Dissolution of self and creation of art 32
6. The truly metaphysical activity of this life 40
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viii contents
7. Idea and sensory perception 44
8. Symbols trivial 46
9. Realism vulgar 48
10. Every thing beautiful 50
11. Genius objective 54
12. Bliss, not just pleasure 58
13. Will-less, not just disinterested 61
14. Music 64
15. Tragedy and the vanity of life 67
16. Denial of the Will-to-live 71
17. Affirmation of the Will-to-live 75
18. Happiness negative 78
19. Suffering productive 79
20. The metaphysical drama 81
21. Timeless present, no ending 86
22. Life pensum, suicide no escape 88
23. The primacy of nothingness 92
Chapter II Beckett’s philosophical view of art and life in Proust 95
24. True reality and caricature of reality 95
25. Idea versus concept 98
26. Causality, time, will 100
27. Habit 102
28. Two kinds of memory 104
29. Vulgarity 106
30. Death of habit – waking madness 108
31. Purity, impurity 112
32. The necessity of art 115
33. Schopenhauer made use of 118
34. Schopenhauer altered 123
35. The Proustian equation – the Proustian solution 129
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contents ix
36. Affirmation of the will. Voluntarily Tantalus 132
37. Desert of loneliness. No morality 134
38. Existence of the artist 136
Part Two On some details in Beckett’s literary work 141
Chapter III Murphy 145
39. I am not of the big world, I am of the little world 145
40. Vision 147
41. Will-lessness, yearning for Nothing 149
Chapter IV Moran 153
42. Remnants of a pensum 153
43. A work which will subsist 157
44. Finality without end 160
45. Images of this kind the will cannot revive 162
46. Dispossessed of self 164
Chapter V The Unnamable 169
47. What if we were one and the same after all 169
48. There is no pronoun for me 173
49. I have a pensum to discharge 177
50. I’m all these words 181
51. I am doing my best and failing: new
thoughts about art and the artist 183
Chapter VI Gogo and Didi, Hamm and Clov 191
52. In a cage out of time and space 191
53. In a single night 194
54. You pollute the air 196
55. Is it not time for my pain-killer? 199
56. This is not boring you I hope 202
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