Beckett and Cioran

This Element discusses the association between Samuel Beckett, and the Romanian-born philosopher, E. M. Cioran. It draws upon the known biographical detail, but, more substantially, upon the terms of Beckett's engagement with Cioran's writings, from the 1950s to the 1970s. Certain of Cioran's key conceptualisations, such as that of the 'meteque', and his version of philosophical scepticism, resonate with aspects of Beckett's writing as it evolved beyond the 'siege in the room'. More particularly, aspects of Cioran's conclusion about the formal nature that philosophy must assume chime with some of the formal decisions taken by Beckett in the mid-late prose. Through close reading of some of Beckett's key works such as Texts for Nothing and How It Is, and through consideration of Beckett's choices when translating between English and French, the issues of identity and understanding shared by these two settlers in Paris are mutually illuminated.

本文討論了塞繆爾·貝克特（Samuel Beckett）與出生於羅馬尼亞的哲學家E. M. Cioran之間的關聯。它基於已知的傳記細節，更重要的是基於貝克特從1950年代到1970年代與Cioran的著作的接觸。Cioran的某些關鍵概念，如「meteque」的概念和他對哲學懷疑論的版本，與貝克特的寫作有共鳴，這些寫作超越了「房間中的圍困」。更具體地說，Cioran對哲學必須承擔的形式性質的結論與貝克特在中後期散文中所做的一些形式決策相呼應。通過對貝克特的一些重要作品（如《無聲的文字》和《它是如何的》）進行仔細閱讀，以及考慮貝克特在英法翻譯中的選擇，這兩位在巴黎定居的人共同面臨的身份和理解問題得到了互相關照的闡明。