Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Writing in the shadow of nuclear holocaust and the existential angst of the postwar era, Samuel Beckett, like few other authors spoke to the cultural imagination and anxieties of living in the vortex of catastrophes. For Gabriele Schwab, his work has taken on new meaning as we are living in a period defined by both paralyzing stasis and turbulence. Moreover, as we approach an era that will increasingly be shaped by climate change and pandemics, Beckett's particular sense of end times and his vision of human adaptability offers a critical lens to understand our times and also, perhaps, provides solace. In Samuel Beckett's Poetics of the End Times, Gabriele Schwab draws on her decades-long engagement with Beckett. She describes how Beckett's ideas defined her work as a critic and theorist and also provided a sanctuary during difficult times in her personal life. She examines Beckett's writings from the more famous works including Happy Days and End Game to lesser-known works such as Breath his 35-second play, which Schwab reads anew in light of our experience with COVID-19 as a meditation on living and grounding oneself as we confront loneliness, vulnerability, and perpetual anxiety"-- Provided by publisher.

Intro -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Moments for Nothing: Endgame and Its Discontents -- 2. The Transitional Space Between Life and Death: "The Calmative," Molloy, and Malone Dies -- 3. End Times of Subjectivity: The Unnamable -- 4. "Laughing wildly inmidst severest woe": Happy Days and the Last Humans -- 5. Cosmographical Meditations on the In/Human: The Lost Ones -- Coda: Breath and the Vicissitudes of Animation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on October 24, 2023).

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 050