Nothing’s Imperative: Late Beckett

Abstract

This article dwells on the imperative to say “nothing”, concentrating its attention, for the most part, on Worstward Ho. It aims to illuminate the imperative’s temporality as well as to account for its origin. It is suggested that Beckett’s late writing is best approached not by way of phenomenology but from what Walter Benjamin calls the “fundamental problem of the theory of language” (2007: 316; trans. modified): the question of the medial matter of language as such.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel wei uit oor die imperatief "om niks te sê nie" en fokus grotendeels op Worstward Ho. Die doel van die artikel is om lig te werp op die imperatief se tydelikheid en ook om die oorsprong daarvan te probeer verklaar. Daar word aangevoer dat die beste benadering tot Beckett se laat werke nie in die fenomenologie lê nie maar wel in wat Walter Benjamin die fundamentele probleem van die taalteorie noem (2007: 316), naamlik die kwessie van die bemiddelende aard van taal as sodanig.