贝克特的破圈:文学的分形

IF 0.3 4区 文学 0 LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM JOURNAL OF BECKETT STUDIES Pub Date : 2020-09-01 DOI:10.3366/jobs.2020.0311
Luke Connolly
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引用次数: 0

摘要

本文认为,瓦特在他的故事的第二部分中遇到的一个破碎的圆的画面标志着贝克特的文学兴趣和数学兴趣之间的一个关键的碰撞点,并引发了一个分形尺度自相似的过程。基于最近对贝克特作品中数学和数学形式的作用的兴趣,我认为瓦特的图片中描绘的破碎的圆圈是一种几何形式,在贝克特的长篇散文中至少出现了三个相互关联的尺度:(i)它在瓦特的画面中出现的那一刻;(ii)从瓦特到《无名者》的五部小说中主人公的名字在宏观上的重现;(iii)埋藏在《How It Is》的叙事深度中。作为一种结构原则,分形的无休止的不规则性为贝克特提供了一个可行的解决方案,他认为这是现代艺术家的定义任务:“找到一种形式来容纳混乱”。此外,为他的分形所选择的特定形状表明,在其几何结构中包含了贝克特最普遍和最紧迫的问题之一:语言的不可避免的不足。因此,尽管本文仅限于研究贝克特的长篇散文,但破圆分形的概念有望提供一个有价值的启发,通过它来重新评估作者的其他一般途径。因此,分形提供了一种方法,通过这种方法,人们可以将贝克特作品的长度和广度结合在一起,而不必将动态混乱减少到稳定的秩序。
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Beckett's Broken Circle: A Literary Fractal
This essay proposes that the picture of a broken circle encountered by Watt during the second part of his tale marks a crucial collision point between Beckett's literary and mathematical interests and triggers a process of fractal scaling self-similarity. Building on recent interest concerning the role of the mathematics and mathematical forms found in Beckett's work, I argue that the broken circle depicted in the picture from Watt is a geometric form which (re)appears within at least three interlocking scales throughout Beckett's novel-length prose: (i) its moment of arrival in the picture from Watt, (ii) a macroscopic reinscription in the names of the protagonists populating the five novels spanning Watt through to The Unnamable and (iii) buried within the narratological depths of How It Is. As a structural principle, the interminable irregularity of fractals offered Beckett a viable solution for what he considered the defining task of the modern artist: ‘to find a form to accommodate the mess’. Moreover, the specific shape selected for his fractal is shown to contain within its geometry one of Beckett's most universal and pressing concerns: the inevitable insufficiency of language. Therefore, although this essay restricts itself to examining Beckett's novel-length prose, the idea of a broken circle fractal promises to provide a valuable heuristic through which to reassess the author's other generic avenues. Fractals thus offer a means through which one can bind together the length and breadth of Beckett's oeuvre without ever reducing dynamic chaos to stable order.
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