{"id":3766,"date":"2023-03-05T12:27:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T10:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/?p=3766"},"modified":"2023-03-08T08:23:37","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T06:23:37","slug":"book-announcement-a-wretchedness-to-defend-reading-becketts-letters-by-erika-mihalycsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/blog\/book-announcement-a-wretchedness-to-defend-reading-becketts-letters-by-erika-mihalycsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Announcement: \u201cA wretchedness to defend\u201d: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters, by Erika Mih\u00e1lycsa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Title: \u201cA wretchedness to defend\u201d: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters<\/em>\u00a0
Author: Erika Mih\u00e1lycsa (Babe\u0219-Bolyai University<\/strong><\/strong> Cluj-Napoca \/ Kolozsv\u00e1r<\/strong><\/strong>, Romania)
Publisher: University of Debrecen Press
Series: HJEAS Books\u00a0
Date of publication: 2022
ISBN: 978-963-615-047-1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open-access e-book: https:\/\/dupress.unideb.hu\/hu\/termek\/a-wrechedness-to-defend-e-book\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA wretchedness to defend\u201d: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters<\/em> is an in-depth study of the correspondence of Samuel Beckett, selected and published by Cambridge University Press between 2009 and 2016. The volume treats the letters as inroads to Beckett\u2019s poetics, stressing that, apart from their value as key documents to the Beckett canon, these are of a literary quality consubstantial with the output of one of the most radical modern writers. Reading Beckett\u2019s pronouncements on works of literature and art, his first-hand accounts of grappling with his own writerly material, as well as his\u2014invariably reserved\u2014clarifications to theater-makers, translators, and interpreters of his work, in the context of his published fiction and plays and in light of recent advances in archival Beckett studies, the present book focuses on Beckett\u2019s sustained self-education in literature, the visual arts, and philosophy, which imbricates his writerly choices, his lifelong commitment to critical reading, as well as his dilemmas in the practice of writing, self-translating, and theatrical performance. It points at the multiple ways in which this vast and many-faced correspondence reveals previously unknown contexts, over- and undertones of the work, and illuminates the processes of knowledge and \u201cunknowing\u201d on which Beckett\u2019s singular aesthetics of impoverishment, of the low, of finitude, of ethical blank writing and achievement lessness is premised. Given its multiple foci on Beckett the reader, the self-translator, and the self director, the book is of potential interest to Beckett researchers, scholars working in the field of modernism and translation studies, as well as readers of Beckett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018A wretchedness to defend\u2019: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters\u201d<\/em> is the first book-length study to take the full measure of Samuel Beckett\u2019s correspondence. As Mih\u00e1lycsa\u2019s assured writing highlights, this multilingual correspondence provides an essential insight into Beckett\u2019s life and work. Along the way, profound insights into one of literature\u2019s greats are yoked to recent developments in Beckett Studies, which has emerged as a leading sub-discipline in the study of modern literature. For scholars of Beckett Studies, and indeed modern literature more generally, this monograph is an assured guide to the wit, insight, and stoicism offered in Beckett\u2019s letters.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Matthew Feldman, editor of Samuel Beckett\u2019s \u2018Philosophy Notes\u2019<\/em> (2020) and author of Falsifying Beckett: Essays on Archives, Philosophy and Methodology in Beckett Studies <\/em>(2015), and Beckett’s Books<\/em> (2006) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Title: \u201cA wretchedness to defend\u201d: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters\u00a0Author: Erika Mih\u00e1lycsa (Babe\u0219-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca \/ Kolozsv\u00e1r, Romania) Publisher: University of Debrecen Press Series: HJEAS Books\u00a0Date of publication: 2022 ISBN: 978-963-615-047-1 Open-access e-book: https:\/\/dupress.unideb.hu\/hu\/termek\/a-wrechedness-to-defend-e-book\/ \u201cA wretchedness to defend\u201d: Reading Beckett\u2019s Letters is an in-depth study of the correspondence of Samuel Beckett, selected and published by Cambridge University […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3771,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3766\/revisions\/3771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essenglish.org\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}