Abstract
Alain Badiou rejects the conventional idea that Samuel Beckett was a playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. He points out that, in Beckett's writing, there is ideological transfer from "solipsism" to "event." As has been shown in Beckett's later works, he devoted himself to his reflection about "event," thus creating a text of "truth." Badiou, through his idea of Inaesthetics, attempts to understand Beckett in Beckett's own way. From the inherent ideological structure of the text, Badiou constructs critical concepts for the text, and consequently makes the truth of text appear in the form of concepts. He succeeds in projecting the image of Samuel Beckett as one that awaits the event, intervening in it by means of literary creation and having eternal hope for it. Badiou's interpretation of Beckett’s works significantly enlightens literary critics in that literary criticism should not merely interpret the text but also capture the event-truth in the text, so as to achieve innovations in literary creation and criticism.
First Page
193
Last Page
200
Recommended Citation
Tan, Cheng. 2016. "Event-Truth and Literary Criticism: On Badiou's Reading Beckett." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 36, (1): pp.193-200. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol36/iss1/5
