Title: Beckett's Waiting for Godot : a historical play with two Jews as main characters
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2020, vol. 46, iss. 1, pp. 175-194
Extent
175-194
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2020-1-8
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142606
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In a new interpretation of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, Valentin and Pierre Temkine came to the conclusion that it is not a piece of absurd theatre, but a play with a concrete historical background. Based on geographical locations and specific terms used in the original French version, they locate the play in German-occupied France during the Second World War. This article shows that Beckett assimilated his wartime experiences in the play and showed sympathy for the Jews who were hunted by the Germans and their collaborators. Vladimir and Estragon can be regarded as two Jews waiting for someone who will bring them deeper into either the Italian-occupied zone or Switzerland. Godot is therefore an alias for a smuggler taking precautions against arrest. Concrete references in the play are discussed against the historical background to support the thesis of a historical foundation. Several other authors have also stated that the play makes references to the Holocaust.
References
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[34] Perloff, Marjorie (2005) "In Love with Hiding": Samuel Beckett's War. Iowa Review 35 (2), 76–103. | DOI 10.17077/0021-065X.5990
[35] Pountney, Rosemary (1988) Theatre of shadows: Samuel Beckett's drama 1956-76 : From All that fall to Footfalls with commentaries on the latest plays. Irish literary studies 28. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe.
[36] Rastier, Francois (2009) Warten auf Valentin Temkine [Waiting for Valentin Temkin]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Denis Thouard and Tim Trzaskalik (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 43–94.
[37] Rousso, Henry and Grässlin, Matthias (2009) Vichy: Frankreich unter deutscher Besatzung [France under German occupation] ; 1940–1944. Dt. Ausg., Orig.-Ausg. Beck'sche Reihe 1910. München: Beck.
[38] Sarfatti, Michele (1998) Fascist Italy and German Jews in south-eastern France in July 1943. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 3 (3), 318–328. | DOI 10.1080/13545719808454984
[39] Scheiner, Corinne (2013) Self-Translation. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 370–380.
[40] Schlemmer, Thomas and Woller, Hans (2005) Der italienische Faschismus und die Juden 1922 bis 1945 [Italian fascism and the Jews 1922 to 1945]. Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 53 (2), 165–201.
[41] Spuhler, Gregor and Boillat, Valérie (1999) Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Bern: Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz – Zweiter Weltkrieg; BBL/EDMZ.
[42] Temkine, Pierre (2009a) Auf den Spuren von Godot: Eine literarische Ermittlung [Following the traces of Godot: a literary investigation]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 29–42.
[43] Temkine, Pierre (2009b) Was es macht, nichts zu sagen [What it means to say nothing]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 95–108.
[44] Temkine, Pierre (2009c) Woher kommen all diese Leichen? [Where do all these dead bodies come from ?]: Eine historische Lektüre von Warten auf Godot [A historical reading of Waiting for Godot]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 13–28.
[45] Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) (2009) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz.
[46] Temkine, Valentin (2009d) Das Puzzle ist vollständig oder Beckett neu gelesen [The puzzle is complete or Beckett newly read]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 145–163.
[47] Temkine, Valentin (2009e) Von Beckett zu Godot [From Beckett to Godot]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 109–122.
[48] Terrien, Samuel (1989) A theological look at Waiting for Godot. Theology Today 46 (2), 139–153. | DOI 10.1177/004057368904600204
[49] Uhlmann, Anthony (2013) Introduction. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–4.
[50] Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) (2013) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[51] Will, Barbara (2014) The Resistance Syndrome: Alain Badiou on Samuel Beckett. South Central Review 31 (1), 114–129. | DOI 10.1353/scr.2014.0009
[52] Wylie, Laurence (1975) Village in the Vaucluse. 3rd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
[2] Aymé, Marcel (1959) Der Mann, der durch die Wand gehen konnte [The man who walked through the wall]. Hamburg: Rowohlt.
[3] Balzac, Honoré d. (2017) Mercadet oder Warten auf Godeau [Mercadet or Waiting for Godeau]. With the assistance of E. Tophoven. Erste Auflage. Berlin: Verbrecher Verlag.
[4] Beckett, Samuel, Craig, George and Hirte, Chris (2014) Ein Unglück, das man bis zum Ende verteidigen muß: 1941-1956. Bd. 2. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
[5] Beckett, Samuel and Tophoven, Elmar (1971) Warten Auf Godot: En Attendant Godot. Waiting for Godot. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch 1. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
[6] Benson, Mary (1987) Blin on Beckett. In: Cohn, Ruby (ed.) Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot; a Casebook. Casebook series. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 26–28.
[7] Bökel, Gerhard (2017) Der Geisterzug, die Nazis und die Résistance [The ghost train, the Nazis, and the Résistance]. Frankfurt a.M.: Brandes & Apsel.
[8] Boyle, Kay (1987) All Mankind Is Us. In: Cohn, Ruby (ed.) Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot; a Casebook. Casebook series. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 176–180.
[9] Cavaglion, Alberto (2005) Foreign Jews in the western Alps (1938–43). Journal of Modern Italian Studies 10 (4), 426–446. | DOI 10.1080/13545710500314645
[10] Cohn, Ruby (1961) Samuel Becket Self-Translator. PMLA 76 (5), 613–621. | DOI 10.2307/460556
[11] Cohn, Ruby (ed.) (1987) Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot; a Casebook. Casebook series. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
[12] Drake, David (2015) Paris at War: 1939-1944. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
[13] Drake, Jaclyn (2012) "Finding the 'right angle': Repositioning Waiting for Godot and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead as potential expressions of Holocaust remembrance. Honors Program Thesis, Department of English, Baylor University.
[14] Duckworth, Colin (1987) Godot: Genesis and Composition. In: Cohn, Ruby (ed.) Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot; a Casebook. Casebook series. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 81–86.
[15] Fittko, Lisa (2000) Escape through the Pyrenees. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
[16] Freud, Sigmund (1900) The interpretation of dreams. London: The Hogart Press.
[17] Gibson, Andrew (2010) Samuel Beckett. Critical lives. London: Reaktion Books.
[18] Gontarski, Stanley E. (1983) The intent of undoing in Samuel Beckett's art. Modern Fiction Studies 29 (1), 5–23.
[19] Gontarski, Stanley E. (1987) War Experiences and Godot. In: Cohn, Ruby (ed.) Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot ; a Casebook. Casebook series. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 175–176.
[20] Gordon, Lois (2013) France: World War Two. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 109–125.
[21] Gordon, Lois G. (1996) The world of Samuel Beckett: 1906–1946. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
[22] Granier, Raymond (2014) "Le temps des restrictions." In: Lin, Dominique (ed.) 39–45 en Vaucluse, nous étions tous des sans-culottes, Collection Mémoires. Orange: Elan Sud, 15–19..
[23] Grillère, Diane (2010) L'occupation italienne en France de 1940 à 1943: Administration, souveraineté, rivalités. Diacronie 4 (3), 1–20.
[24] Joffrin, Laurent and Raffy, Serge (1994) Les mystères qui restent. Le Nouvel Observateur, September 15, 1558.
[25] Kenner, Hugh (1987) Waiting for Godot. In: Bloom, Harold (ed.) Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Modern critical interpretations. New York, NY: Chelsea House Publ., 53–66.
[26] Knowlson, James (1996) Damned to fame: The life of Samuel Beckett. London: Bloomsbury.
[27] Kreis, Georg (1997) Die schweizerische Flüchtlingspolitik der Jahre1933-1945. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Geschichte 47 (4), 552–579.
[28] Levendel, Isaac (1999) Not the Germans alone: A son's search for the truth of Vichy. Evanston Ill.: Northwestern University Press.
[29] Levendel, Isaac and Weisz, Bernard (2012) Hunting down the Jews: Vichy, the Nazis and Mafia Collaborators in Provence, 1942-1944. New York: Enigma Books.
[30] Morin, Emilie (2017) Beckett's political imagination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[31] Morrison, Christopher (2012) The Wandering Jew in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 11 (3), 399–417. | DOI 10.1080/14725886.2012.737993
[32] Nixon, Mark and van Hulle, Dirk (2018) The making of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot'/'En attendant Godot'. The Beckett Manuscript Project. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
[33] Overbeck, Lois M. (2013) Letters. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 428–439.
[34] Perloff, Marjorie (2005) "In Love with Hiding": Samuel Beckett's War. Iowa Review 35 (2), 76–103. | DOI 10.17077/0021-065X.5990
[35] Pountney, Rosemary (1988) Theatre of shadows: Samuel Beckett's drama 1956-76 : From All that fall to Footfalls with commentaries on the latest plays. Irish literary studies 28. Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe.
[36] Rastier, Francois (2009) Warten auf Valentin Temkine [Waiting for Valentin Temkin]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Denis Thouard and Tim Trzaskalik (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 43–94.
[37] Rousso, Henry and Grässlin, Matthias (2009) Vichy: Frankreich unter deutscher Besatzung [France under German occupation] ; 1940–1944. Dt. Ausg., Orig.-Ausg. Beck'sche Reihe 1910. München: Beck.
[38] Sarfatti, Michele (1998) Fascist Italy and German Jews in south-eastern France in July 1943. Journal of Modern Italian Studies 3 (3), 318–328. | DOI 10.1080/13545719808454984
[39] Scheiner, Corinne (2013) Self-Translation. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 370–380.
[40] Schlemmer, Thomas and Woller, Hans (2005) Der italienische Faschismus und die Juden 1922 bis 1945 [Italian fascism and the Jews 1922 to 1945]. Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 53 (2), 165–201.
[41] Spuhler, Gregor and Boillat, Valérie (1999) Die Schweiz und die Flüchtlinge zur Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Bern: Unabhängige Expertenkommission Schweiz – Zweiter Weltkrieg; BBL/EDMZ.
[42] Temkine, Pierre (2009a) Auf den Spuren von Godot: Eine literarische Ermittlung [Following the traces of Godot: a literary investigation]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 29–42.
[43] Temkine, Pierre (2009b) Was es macht, nichts zu sagen [What it means to say nothing]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 95–108.
[44] Temkine, Pierre (2009c) Woher kommen all diese Leichen? [Where do all these dead bodies come from ?]: Eine historische Lektüre von Warten auf Godot [A historical reading of Waiting for Godot]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 13–28.
[45] Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) (2009) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz.
[46] Temkine, Valentin (2009d) Das Puzzle ist vollständig oder Beckett neu gelesen [The puzzle is complete or Beckett newly read]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 145–163.
[47] Temkine, Valentin (2009e) Von Beckett zu Godot [From Beckett to Godot]. In: Temkine, Pierre, Thouard, Denis and Trzaskalik, Tim (eds.) Warten auf Godot: Das Absurde und die Geschichte. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz, 109–122.
[48] Terrien, Samuel (1989) A theological look at Waiting for Godot. Theology Today 46 (2), 139–153. | DOI 10.1177/004057368904600204
[49] Uhlmann, Anthony (2013) Introduction. In: Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1–4.
[50] Uhlmann, Anthony (ed.) (2013) Samuel Beckett in Context. Literature in context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[51] Will, Barbara (2014) The Resistance Syndrome: Alain Badiou on Samuel Beckett. South Central Review 31 (1), 114–129. | DOI 10.1353/scr.2014.0009
[52] Wylie, Laurence (1975) Village in the Vaucluse. 3rd ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.