Beckett often made use of images from the visual arts and readapted them, staging them in his plays, or using them in his fiction. Anthony Uhlmann sets out to explain how an image differs from other terms, like 'metaphor’ or ‘representation’, and, in the process, to analyse Beckett’s use of images borrowed from philosophy and aesthetics.
This is the first study of Beckett’s thoughts on the image in his literary
works and of his extensive notes to the philosopher Arnold Geulincx.
Uhlmann considers how images might allow one kind of interaction
between philosophy and literature, and how Beckett makes use of
images which are borrowed from, or drawn into dialogue with,
philosophical images from Geulincx, Berkeley, Bergson and the
Ancient Stoics. Uhlmann’s reading of Beckett’s aesthetic and philosophical
interests provides a revolutionary new reading of the importance
of the image in his work.