Samuel Beckett’s ‘The Way’ and Stirrings Still:

Analysing the Self from ‘Schopenhauerian Buddhist’ Perspective

Abstract

The article discusses the idea of the self in Samuel Beckett’s late short prose writings. The nature of the self, presented in disintegrated and essenceless form in Beckett’s works, responds powerfully to the category of world literature through their crossing of cultural boundaries. Beckett read the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and Schopenhauer in turn, was influenced by the Eastern philosophies of Buddhism and the Vedas. The essential characteristic of the presentation of the self in Beckett’s writings, when filtered through Schopenhauer’s understanding of the Eastern philosophy, leads to what Beckett called ‘an intellectual justification of unhappiness’ and the understanding of the ‘veil of Maya.’