Making the Best of a Bad Job

This book explores the representations of disability, gender and old age in the novels of Samuel Beckett. His works go against the foundations of Western thought, which has been traditionally focused on success, clarity, learning and ability, while Beckett chose to focus on failure, confusion, decay and impotence.

Autorentext

Manuel Barberá López earned his PhD in Literature (Cum Laude and with an International Mention) at Universitat de València in 2020. He works as a post-doctoral researcher at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, where he analyses representations of ageing masculinities in European literatures and cinemas.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: "To fail as no other dare fail" The Damaged Brain: Ruptures in Perception and Memory The Fragmented Speech: The Impossibility of Communication and the Road to Silence The Broken Body: Motility, Paralysis and Isolation Disability in Samuel Beckett: The Trauma of Life and the Contagious Nature of Resilience Men as Agents: Narration, Impotence and the Loss of Masculine Mastery The Representation of Men: Rejection of Hegemonic Masculinity and of the Heterosexual Matrix The Representation of Women: Deactivation of the Feminine Mystique Gender in Samuel Beckett: A System of Reciprocal Dependency The Life Course and Its Meaning: Aging and the Novels The End of Wandering: Representations of Old Age and Death Old Age in Samuel Beckett: Intersections, the Social Stigma and Taking a Stand Conclusions: "Making the best of a bad job" Index.