Beckett, Samuel - Jeanette R. Malkin (essay date spring 1997)
Jeanette R. Malkin (essay date spring 1997)
SOURCE: Malkin, Jeanette R. “Matters of Memory in Krapp's Last Tape and Not I.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 11, no. 2 (spring 1997): 25-39.
[In the following essay, Malkin discusses Beckett's dramatic presentation of memory in Krapp's Last Tape and Not I.]
Krapp's Last Tape (1958) embodies memory and the dislocations of time; in Not I (1972) even the “body” disappears—“whole body like gone”—and only a dislocated memory, visualized as a “subjectless” mouth, is left us. Theatrically, we have here the break between a mimetic theatre (however reduced), and postmodern dissolutions. Krapp may be drawn as a metaphor for man as clown or bum—white face, purple nose, short pants, large shoes; but for all the pregnant minimalism he still retains a distinct character, a discernable story, a room, a name. Mouth obviously has none of these;...
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