Beckett’s power-full signifiers : the semiotics of power in Beckett’s catastrophe
Other Title(s)
دلالات بيكيت المكتنفة بالسلطة : سيميائية السلطة في مسرحية بيكيت (الكارثة)
Author
Source
University of Sharjah Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences
Issue
Vol. 15, Issue 1 (30 Jun. 2018), pp.63-85, 23 p.
Publisher
Publication Date
2018-06-30
Country of Publication
United Arab Emirates
No. of Pages
23
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
This article seeks to conduct a semiotic enquiry into the problematic issue of power in relation to aesthetic representation by demonstrating that Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe is a play that deals with the complexity of [re]presenting power rather than the representation of power per se.
While a full discussion of the question of power as historically represented in theatre would eventually correspond to an ample investigation whose limits are unpredictable, the focus in this discussion is placed on how dramatic signs, verbal and non-verbal, are used to present an image of power as a phenomenon whose contours can never be fully or conclusively drawn.
Accordingly, the article attempts to explain how power in Beckett’s Catastrophe is shown circulating through a series of signifying practices of a stage director who seeks to impose his will and point of view in presenting the image of a catastrophe to the audience.
These practices are analysed and interpreted primarily as signs pertaining to various sign-systems, including the linguistic, the kinetic and the proxemic.
What this article will demonstrate is that the forms of domination, coercion and the desire to control others as well as the forms of solidarity and resistance displayed through verbal, kinetic and proxemic action in Beckett’s Catastrophe are cultural signifiers, involving communicative, linguistic as well as pragmatic aspects and testifying to the intricacy of representing power and its complicated mechanisms.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Bisbas, Khalid Muhammad. 2018. Beckett’s power-full signifiers : the semiotics of power in Beckett’s catastrophe. University of Sharjah Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences،Vol. 15, no. 1, pp.63-85.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-861461
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Bisbas, Khalid Muhammad. Beckett’s power-full signifiers : the semiotics of power in Beckett’s catastrophe. University of Sharjah Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences Vol. 15, no. 1 (Jun. 2018), pp.63-85.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-861461
American Medical Association (AMA)
Bisbas, Khalid Muhammad. Beckett’s power-full signifiers : the semiotics of power in Beckett’s catastrophe. University of Sharjah Journal for Humanities and Social Sciences. 2018. Vol. 15, no. 1, pp.63-85.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-861461
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references : p. 83-84
Record ID
BIM-861461