Representing Irishness In Beckett's Waiting For Godot, Endgame And All That Fall

Analyzing Irishness in literary works written by Irish writers is a common way.Irishness,to some extent,refers to the national identity.However,because of Beckett's experience,the discussion about his identity has never ended and up to 2009,his identity eventually was accepted by Ireland through the fact that the bridge named after his name was built.Although his identity was questioned and the evidence about Ireland in his works is obscure,it cannot hinder us to explore the Irish features in his works.Some details in his plays show us his concern about Ireland,and illuminate his unique Irishness.Throughout critics' research on Beckett and his works,it is not difficult to know that these critics did the research mainly from the perspectives of absurdity and existentialism and so on,few of them focus on the Irishness in Beckett's works.In Waiting for Godot,Endgame and All That Fall,which are his representatives,Beckett expresses his expression towards Ireland by designing the unique settings and characters,retracing Irish history.Therefore,this thesis will explore the Irishness in these three plays from the angle of postmodernism,combing with the textual reading,which will enrich the research of Beckettian critic,as well as provide a new direction to the research on Beckett's works.Apart from introduction and conclusion,the structure of this thesis is as follows.Chapter One,through the settings,will explain how Beckett traces Ireland in his works and to what extent he relate these settings to the places and landscape in Ireland.Chapter Two elaborates on representing the Irish character in particular period.This chapter will analyze the how Beckett displays Irishness in his plays through three parts: the spiritual state;the physical condition and the language.Chapter Three expounds the Irish history which is recurred in these plays and analyzes how Beckett shows his feelings towards Ireland by remembering Irish history.