Interlude. From rousseau to beckett: the opening of the ‘third mode’ of language

Abstract To move from Rousseau’s pre-romantic Rêveries to Beckett’s trilogy is to approach a fundamentally different context of thought. There is a need, consequently, to pause and consider this shift before moving on to Beckett. Such is the motivation behind this Interlude. The overall intention is to trace the shift in question and attempt to disentangle the relevant consequences for the exploration of literary silence in the trilogy. Emerging in the twentieth century, Beckett’s intellectual, artistic and historical frameworks have undergone dramatic changes that in turn echo through his work and that clearly set him apart from both Pascal and Rousseau. With what can be called the turn into modernism, new vistas of thought opened up that were previously unavailable. More specifically, a preoccupation emerged regarding the dynamics of language itself. Increasingly language becomes a central object of literary and philosophical reflection, and the result is a raised level of awareness regarding the complexities of the symbolic mode. This seems to bring about a similar will to explore the dynamics of silence with renewed awareness. This reflective focus on silence also affects manners of thinking silence in relation to the literary or poetic expression. In the light of literary silence it is therefore the increased reflective awareness regarding silence that characterizes the shift from Rousseau to Beckett.