(Think of) suicide and smile : imagining suicide in Samuel Beckettâs TV plays
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Theatre and Film, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Lee, Jung Soo
issued: 2025-10-22T22:24:38Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Though suicide is referred or alluded to in many of Beckettâs works, it has not received much scholarly attention. This paper attempts to trace how the representation of suicide in Beckettâs oeuvre has evolved over the years, and how his teleplays in particular mark the culmination of Beckettâs thoughts regarding suicide. Where modernist literature attempts to show identification with and understanding of suicide, Beckett deviates from this trend by instead focusing on the impossibility to identify or come to terms with it. His early to middle period works reach this conclusion humourously, emphasizing the fact that there is nothing to be done about it. His teleplays, however, make the impossible move to go one step further, all the while acknowledging the impossibility to go any further; in other words, despite the unknowability of the Other, a move towards the Other is made nevertheless. In Beckettâs works, this inevitable failure is not a source of despair, but rather an occasion for a fleeting smile that smiles at the failure. Through this non-commitment, through the refusal to identify and interpret the suicidal mind, Beckett perhaps suggests the most ethical representation of suicide.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92708
note: (Think of) Suicide and Smile: Imagining Suicide in Samuel Beckettâs TV Plays by Jung Soo Lee B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2019 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Cinema and Media Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2025 © Jung Soo Lee, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: (Think of) Suicide and Smile: Imagining Suicide in Samuel Beckettâs TV Plays submitted by Jung Soo Lee in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Cinema and Media Studies Examining Committee: William Brown, Associate Professor, Cinema and Media Studies, UBC Supervisor Adam Frank, Professor, English Language and Literature, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Though suicide is referred or alluded to in many of Beckettâs works, it has not received much scholarly attention. This paper attempts to trace how the representation of suicide in Beckettâs oeuvre has evolved over the years, and how his teleplays in particular mark the culmination of Beckettâs thoughts regarding suicide. Where modernist literature attempts to show identification with and understanding of suicide, Beckett deviates from this trend by instead focusing on the impossibility to identify or come to terms with it. His early to middle period works reach this conclusion humourously, emphasizing the fact that there is nothing to be done about it. His teleplays, however, make the impossible move to go one step further, all the while acknowledging the impossibility to go any further; in other words, despite the unknowability of the Other, a move towards the Other is made nevertheless. In Beckettâs works, this inevitable failure is not a source of despair, but rather an occasion for a fleeting smile that smiles at the…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0450532
language: eng
degree discipline: Cinema and Media Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Brown, William, 1977-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92708