How Beckett’s Man Was Born from Keaton, or an Absurdist Book of Genesis

Abstract

“How Beckett’s Man Was Born from Keaton, or an Absurdist Book of Genesis” is an attempt to find the origins of Beckettian characters in cinematic tradition. The choice of Buster Keaton is intentional, as it was him – proud and headstrong and not the overly sentimental Chaplin – who introduced the sphere of the essence of existence (stemming from the antic tragedy) into the world of slapstick (a part of low culture). Keaton – the deadpan comedian from his serious comedies and Samuel Beckett – the creator of the theatre where lack of action forms the bulk of the action both entered the field of eschatological reflections while contradicting the form they both had been using. Experimenting with Time as a matter in the work they achieved a narrative breakthrough – Beckett by stretching it to the unbearable, never-ending “here and now”, Keaton by shrinking it, so that the hero could never keep up with the events or the viewer’s perception. All in the name of absurd, the sense of which both Beckett and Keaton shared to a surprising extent.