The Allure of "Fail Better": Uses of Beckett's Modernist Cliché

ABSTRACT:Informed by Bruno Latour's conceptualization of the social, this essay traces the trajectory of Samuel Beckett's phrase "fail better," from the 1983 novella Worstward Ho, as it intersects with discourses within disciplines such as business, science, and education. In doing so, it details the functions the phrase serves as it becomes enmeshed in these discourses, suggesting that it often works to construct both individual and communal identity. Additionally, the phrase, when fully situated within these discourses, accumulates new significance, which increases its utility within each discourse while simultaneously facilitating comparison between discourses. The essay culminates in a discussion of the role of literary scholars as mediators between the phrase's diverse contexts and how they might leverage the position of the phrase (and other similar phrases) within these discourses to enhance the influence of literary texts and, by extension, literary criticism.