The Art Of Scarcity

Samuel Beckett, once a novelist and playwright whose works were either rejected by publishers or met with cold welcome of the public, now becomes a global artist. As the heart of his achievement, the trilogy, which includes Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable, invites multiple ways of interpretation. Among the numerous artistic merits the trilogy exhibits, scarcity is a most striking feature. It is widely acknowledged, frequently mentioned, yet not fully discussed. The dissertation, therefore, undertakes the task of analyzing, with the classical narratological theories, how the scarcity is embodied in the trilogy and what artistic effects are achieved by the employment of it. This dissertation holds that the narrative elements in each of the three novels are featured by"scarcity", which, in the dissertation's hypothesis, accounts for Beckett's master art in narrative creation and involvement of the reader. In the trilogy, there is only a scarce and unspecific description of the geographical setting and thus the characters and their action is confined to a limited space. The scarcity in setting indicates Beckett's tendency of shifting the focus from the outer world onto the inner world. The storyline in the trilogy also suffers from a scarcity. There is a lack of causality in the plot, and the stories become disjointed. With the final cease of physical action, the boundary between story and discourse is removed. The characters of the trilogy, too, become less and less present in the texts. In the narratological perspective, scarcity embodies Beckett's breakthrough from the conventional narrative patterns. It becomes one of Beckett's most important devise for his artistic creation and method of involving the reader in the construct of the text. The dissertation concludes that the artistic effects of scarcity lie in the self-reflectivity of Beckett's writing and his invitation for the reader to participate in the interpretation of the work. The art of scarcity brings the trilogy a unique charm, and exerts great influences on the contemporary writer and reader. The dissertation includes five parts, structured as the following:Introduction first gives an overview of Beckett's trilogy, and points out that the trilogy features a scarcity in setting, plot and character. Then the scarcity is defined as the lack of information for setting, plot and characters compared with the conventional narrative. The scarcity is a relative phenomenon: where the information for conventional fiction reader is widely available, Beckett withholds it, and the vast gaps between information pieces are filled with large amount of self-reflective monologue. Next, a critical review on the scarcity is done, and it finds out that the situation of study on scarcity in the trilogy is paradoxical—while scarcity is widely acknowledged by critics, very few have carried the issue to the depth. Thus it becomes the reason for the dissertation's stated task. The last section is a brief introduction to the theoretical framework, the objectives and structure of the dissertation.Chapter 1 Scarcity of Setting mainly deals with the lack of information on physical setting. It points out that in the trilogy the description of geographical setting and physical time becomes less and less, and that coincides with the idea of getting rid of time in theory of spatial form. In Molloy, the setting is scarce in that a feeling of bleakness is conveyed immediately. Further, the description of the setting is reduced to the senses. The setting becomes more confined in Malone Dies, and the space is limited to a room, or a skull. That changes the way time is sensed so that the past and present, memory and invention is gradually confused. When it comes to The Unnamable, setting is highly abstracted, and thus the space and time is actually reduced to mere concepts. In this way, Beckett not only gives an emphasis on the narrative of the mental world, but also involves the reader to take a journey in the much-extended artistic space with more freedom than she has with the traditional works.Chapter 2 Scarcity of Plot first prepares for the analysis of the texts with such important concepts as the distinction of story and discourse, causality, closure and the basic issues concerning narrative. And then it points out that, different from the traditional novel, the three novels in Beckett's trilogy share the scarcity in the quality the above concepts describe, and the scarcity just varies in degree in different novels. It furthers to interpret the plot of Molloy as lack of causality, resulted from a denial and parody of rationality that governs the cause-and-effect relation in traditional narratives. Malone Dies embodies an absence of closure, enabling the work to go beyond the self-containing of the book. And lastly, in The Unnamable, the story is so scarce that it gives way to discourse. Thus, the novel dissolves the boundary between story and discourse, that is, content becomes form, and form content. The dissolution of boundaries between fiction and criticism, between fiction and philosophy makes the text an encyclopedic narrative. The chapter concludes that with less attention to the actions, the writer becomes more reflective about his own writing and the reader, in turn, shifts her focus from the outer world onto the inner world of the fiction, thus resuming her obligation to interpret the artistic work.Chapter 3 Scarcity of Character deals with the instability of identity and the absence of the characters in the trilogy. It points out that, in terms of narrative communication, the scarcity of character brings a change to the conventional communication model between characters, narrator and author. The scarcity is a proof for Beckett's breakthrough in the presentation of character. In the first novel, Molloy and Moran lack the ability of communication with others, and as narrators they have difficulty in naming and synchronizing their languages and memories. The lack of communication between characters aims to shift reader's focus from characters onto the author and the writing itself. Malone in the second novel becomes incapable of physical wandering and his action is reduced to the two"poles"of basic needs. As a result, Malone can only tell stories, but when he finds that his characters but another self he is not content with, he abandons them. Thus, the characters become underdeveloped, which results in the blurring of boundaries between character, narrator and author. With only blurred boundaries, the reader can have a closer interaction with the author. In the last novel, the scarcity is embodied in the instability of identity and the absence of characters. The protagonist is so reduced in human quality that it finally takes the name Worm. The characters show a lack of physical presence in the novels to the effect that a voice presents itself as the main character. Corresponding to the scarcity of plot, the scarcity of character incurs the abolishment of the boundaries between character, narrator and author, thus enabling the reader to have a"face to face"communication with the author. However, the reader must realize that in such a situation, the voice she hears is"the dialogue within the monologue", a mixture of voices the characters, the narrators and the author.Conclusion sums up the major points that have been previously stated, relates the creation of the trilogy to Beckett's aesthetic ideas. This final part of the dissertation points out that Beckett wants to create a narrative form that"accommodates chaos", which could best reflect the postmodernist writer's self-reflectivity and his ultimate concern with the reader. To achieve such a form, Beckett strips his fiction of all the qualities of the conventional novel. The scarcity in all elements of the novel results in the extension of the works'aesthetic space that allows more self-reflection for the author and more interaction with the reader. Scarcity has become the style in the trilogy, bringing endless connotations to the novels with boiled-down information. With scarcity as the signature of his style in the trilogy, Beckett presents a precious bequest to the world.