Table Of ContentTHE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME:
A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF
SAMUEL BECKETT
by
Aaron Pancho
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of
The Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
August 2011
© Copyright Aaron Pancho 2011
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THE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME:
A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF
SAMUEL BECKETT
by
Aaron Pancho
This thesis was prepared under the direction ofthe candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Mark
Scroggins, Department of English, and has been approved by the members of his
supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt
College ofArts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements
for the degree ofMaster ofArts.
SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:
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Eric Berlatsky, Ph.D.
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Carol McGuirk, Ph.D.
Andrew Furman, Ph.D.
Interim Chair, Department ofEnglish
Heather Coltman, D.M.A.
Interim Dean, Dorothy F. Schmidt College ofArts & Letters
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to express his sincerest gratitude to his family—Mom, Dad,
Amanda, Gatsby, and Harrison—for their support and patience throughout the
production of this thesis. Additionally, the author wishes to thank Dr. Scroggins, Dr.
Berlatsky, and Dr. McGuirk for their endless guidance and insight.
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ABSTRACT
Author: Aaron Pancho
Title: The Post-Apocalyptic, the Cyborg, and the Passage of Time: A
Reading of the Parallels of Science Fiction and the Works of
Samuel Beckett
Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Mark Scroggins
Degree: Master of Arts
Year: 2011
This study is an examination of the several themes and conventions of science
fiction that seem to appear in the texts of Samuel Beckett. Expectedly, many of the texts
produced by both science fiction and Beckett just before, during, and immediately after
World War II share similar concerns; though perhaps less expectedly, these two
relatively unlike bodies of work can be used to help better understand and illuminate
one another. In Waiting for Godot, nuclear anxieties shed light on the play’s apparent
post-apocalyptic landscape and the profound emptiness that permeates the stage. In
Molloy, Hugh Kenner uses Centaur imagery to explain the title character’s Cartesian
relationship with his bicycle; however, contemporary sensibilities at the time of the
novel’s publication suggests a cyborg reading of the Molloy/bicycle hybrid can also be
productive. And in Krapp’s Last Tape, the tape recorder serves as a figurative time
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machine, which allows readers to consider the ways technology continues to allow for
the capture of time and subsequent reflection.
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THE POST-APOCALYPTIC, THE CYBORG, AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME:
A READING OF THE PARALLELS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND THE WORKS OF
SAMUEL BECKETT
An Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1
Chapter 1. The Two Days After: Reading Waiting for Godot as Post-Apocalyptic
Theater ............................................................................................................ 4
Chapter 2. The Beckettian Cyborg ................................................................................. 26
Chapter 3. Navigating Time/Space in Krapp’s Last Tape ............................................. 45
A Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 63
Notes ............................................................................................................................... 66
Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 69
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AN INTRODUCTION
At a cursory glance, Samuel Beckett and science fiction may initially seem
dissimilar. Their regard within the canon—the former enjoying a perch somewhere near
the top, while the latter still gazing somewhere from below—could create significant
distance between the two. It is, however, at this unlikely intersection that new and
exciting discourse can be unearthed. Indeed the comparison has been broached: Vivian
Mercier suggests that Endgame is “one of a spate of works of art directly promoted by
the existence of first the atomic and then the hydrogen bomb” (174); likewise, S.E.
Gontarski states that both Endgame and Happy Days are “permeated with the
suggestion of nuclear devastation” (15); and Theodor Adorno echoes much of the same
as he writes, “In Endgame, a historical moment unfolds…After the Second World War,
everything, including a resurrected culture, has been destroyed without realizing it;
humankind continues to vegetate, creeping along after events that even the survivors
cannot really survive” (244). It would appear there is precedent for such a partnership,
and in the following pages I will attempt to further explore the potential of this
approach and continue to contextualize Beckett alongside science fiction to better
understand, complicate, and enjoy his extraordinary texts. Defining any literary
movement can become a daunting challenge worthy of, at the very least, its own
chapter. But for the sake of understanding the basic parameters and general objectives
of science fiction, the opinion of Isaac Asimov may be of use: “True science fiction
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deals with human science, with the continuing advance of knowledge, with the
continuing ability of human beings to make themselves better understand the universe
and even alter some parts of it for their own comfort and security by the ingenuity of
their ideas” (10). It is a genre that fuses modern scientific discovery with the
imaginative spirit of fiction; it envisions the future in an effort to comment on the
politics of the present.
Certainly there is a chronological reason to compare the two, as both maintained
prolific runs throughout the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, Beckett wrote his most
enduring texts, and as Edward James explains, “SF developed in maturity and
complexity, and above all in sheer quantity” during the same decades (qtd. in Roberts
75). Yet, more importantly than historical dates, there is precedent for a thematic
comparison. Many of the common themes readers have come to instinctively associate
with Beckett—desolation and annihilation, man’s precarious relationship with
technology, fluid subjectivity of time/space—are concerns essential to science fiction.
Building upon those striking parallels, my project will attempt to study the following:
post-apocalyptic “absence” in Waiting for Godot, reading the play with an awareness of
atomic age anxiety and nuclear age narratives; the implications of a cyborg reading of
Molloy, studying the union between Molloy/Moran and a bicycle; and the consequences
of an elastic and inelastic time stream, exploring the subject of time travel in Krapp’s
Last Tape. This collection covers a healthy cross section of Beckett’s career, offering
analysis of his work that span different tropes, tones, and media. Then, these Beckett
texts will be interpreted with a series of science fiction novels and short stories. And
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while each chapter is capable of standing on its own, concepts from each will reappear
in surrounding chapters.
My research has yet to come across mention that Beckett was a reader, let alone
an admirer, of science fiction; ultimately, though, this confirmation is unnecessary.
What is of more significance here is that Beckett’s work seems to inherently
demonstrate these science fiction conventions. Suddenly, comparing him to this genre
of literature relies less on imposing an arbitrary alliance between two bodies of work
and instead emphasizes a partnership that may naturally exist. Consciously and/or
subconsciously, Beckett embodies the interests and virtues of science fiction. My intent
is to use one to assist the other, and vice versa, in the name of enlightenment. As is the
case with all new literary scholarship, applying science fiction to Beckett can assist
readers in gaining a new understanding of an author who, despite a wealth of criticism,
remains especially elusive and difficult to fully grasp.
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