The Haptic Aesthetic in Samuel Beckett's Drama

In their sparse and isolated spaces, Samuel Beckett's figures imagine the touch of a lost love or dream of the comfort and care that the hands of a dear one might bring. Applying philosophical writings that feature sensation, particularly touch, Trish McTighe examines how Beckett's later work for stage and screen dramatizes moments of contact between self and self, self and world, and self and other. With implications for how gender and ethics can be approached within Beckett's aesthetic, this study explores the employment of haptic imagery as an alternative to certain dominant codes of visual representation.

Trish McTighe is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Drama in the Department of Film, Theatre, and Television at the University of Reading, UK.

Introduction: Haptics, Aesthetics, Philosophy
1. Eye: Failing, Myopic, Grainy
2. Ear: Full of Relentless Echoes
3. Mouth: Trying to Tell it All, Failing
4. Skin, Space, Place
5. On the One Hand . . . (The One that Writes the Body)
6. On the Other Hand . . . (The One that Refuses to Touch)
Conclusion: Departing Bodies, Between Doubting Thomas and Noli me Tangere