Beyond Modernism

While Beckett has usually been read as either the last modernist or as an existentialist, rereading him as a postmodernist has become long overdue. His works shake the metaphysical foundations of modernism and move beyond the modernist mindframe. This study proposes the idea that postmodern literary and theatrical strategies result from modernist metaphysical problems. If modernist aesthetics and poetics are the product of certain metaphysical ideas, the postmodern rejection of the metaphysical foundations of modernism produces different poetics or anti-aesthetics. Beckett's suspicion of the metaphysics of reality and subjectivity influences the form of his works in a way that locates him within the postmodern frame of mind. Subjecting modernist metaphysics to doubt helps shape the anti-form of postmodern drama. This study seeks to relate postmodern anti-aesthetic practices to their anti-metaphysical roots.

Autorentext

Amr Elsherif is an Assistant Professor of English Literature. He studied at Cairo University and the University of Illinois at Chicago and taught at several universities. In 2008, he received a Fulbright grant. He finished his PhD in 2011. He has published articles and studies in aesthetics, literature and Cultural Studies.