“Both Text and Gloss”: Hermeneutic Translatory Structures in Molloy and Waiting for Godot Restricted; Files Only
Altobelli, Stephen (Spring 2022)
Abstract
This thesis reads Samuel Beckett’s novel Molloy and play Waiting for Godot in tandem with Walter Benjamin’s theory of translation. I argue that translation manifests in both texts, and that it is this manifestation which explains the texts’ resistance to interpretation. This thesis begins by setting forth a theory of Samuel Beckett’s self-translation, which it argues is both de-familiarizing in the style of Benjamin and “hermeneutic” in the way that Lawrence Venuti uses the term. I then examine the ways in which this Beckettian translation manifest in the bifurcated works mentioned above, before examining the figure of the messenger, a character who appears in both works and reifies the complex relationship between translation and interpretation.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments..................6
Introduction..................1
Chapter 1: Molloy..................10
Chapter 2: Waiting for Godot..................30
Coda..................49
Bibliography..................53
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