Tracce. Samuel Beckett e i media

This essay investigates the role of the media in Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre, focusing in particular on Watt (1953) and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958). Arguing for a strong interdependence between mass media (radio and cinema) and modernist experimentations, it highlights how Beckett challenges the form of the novel moving toward a post-typographical literature, in the wake of Joyce’s experiments. Watt and Krapp’s Last Tape are analyzed in order to illustrate Beckett’s deep awareness of the effect of media on the status of writing and representation. The experience of the radio dramatically influenced these works, especially for what concerns the metamorphosis of human voice and perception. The erosion of the ontology of the written word leads Beckett to a disruptive and anti-representational use of the media involved, which ultimately resonate with acute ethical and political undertones. As prostheses or re-mediations of writing, electric media not only contribute to the redefinition of literature, but entail a rethinking of the human per se.