How Beckett’s Man Was Born from Keaton, or an Absurdist Book of Genesis
PDF (Język Polski)

Keywords

narrative breakthrough
negation of form
time
absurd
slapstick
theater of the absurd
Samuel Beckett
Buster Keaton
Waiting for Godot
The General
Generał
Czekając na Godota
teatr absurdu
negacja formy

How to Cite

Malczewska, P. (2009). How Beckett’s Man Was Born from Keaton, or an Absurdist Book of Genesis. Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication, 7(13-14), 211–223. https://doi.org/10.14746/i.2009.13.14.17

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.

https://doi.org/10.14746/i.2009.13.14.17
PDF (Język Polski)

References

J. Błoński i M. Kędzierski, Samuel Beckett,Warszawa 1982, s. 45.

J.-P. Coursodon, Buster Keaton, przeł. A. Konicki, „Kuiturafiimowa" 1969, nr 3 (127), s. 57.

G. Królikiewicz, Wielka Kamienna Twarz — próba analizy filmu „Generał "Buster Keatona, Łódź 1996, s. 153.

A. Camus, Mit Syzyfa i inne eseje, przeł. J. Guze, Warszawa 1999, s.149.

S. Beckett, Wybór tekstów, w: J. Błoński i M. Kędzierski, Samuel Beckett, Warszawa 1982.

S. Beckett, Czekając na Godota, przeł. J. Rogoziński, Warszawa 1973, s.8.

D.P. Klimczak, Śmiertelnicy. Teatr Absurdu Samuela Becketta w przestrzeni Misterium Mortis, Kraków — Warszawa 2006, s. 75.