Beckett's endlessness: Rewriting modernity and the postmodern sublime

Abstract

This article considers the pervasiveness of the theme of ending both in Beckett's work and in Beckett criticism. Accepting the view that Beckett's experiments with narrative undermine the possibility of closure, the article examines the nature of Beckettian temporality, its sense of "finality without end", in relation to the temporality of postmodernism as discussed by Fredric Jameson and Frank Kermode. Drawing on the work of Jean-François Lyotard, the article seeks to understand Beckettian temporality as neither a continuation of, nor a rupture with, the time of modernity, but a "rewriting" akin to Freud's interminable analysis.