„Molloy” (1951) by S. Beckett or, „I write, therefore I exist… seemingly, I don’t know, maybe”
From the abnormalities of the discursive structures to the ”abnormals” of literature, this paper launches a theme for thought to what was dichotomized as an agreed opposition between the normal(-ity) vs. the abnormal(-ity); norm vs. deviance; autistic/alienated vs. alive/normal. Society and the invention of the public sphere, the intensifying of guilt in relation to one’s self – as the Nietzchean bad conscience – emerge at the dawn of modernity as primary causes of what will be incriminated as a deviant-self /deviance and saught to be ”corrected” mainly by a strict control of the body as M. Foucault considered. Modernity brings on the social scene a phenomenon sociologists referre to as the ”self-reflexive identity” (cf. A. Giddens).
In modern literature, this modern self, the ”individual actor” who reflects on the essence of humanity itself, tries to find out what it means ”to-be-yourself” with the help of the alienated reason: deviance as ontological crisis, as a condensed expression of one’s isolation understood as loneliness. Thus the tension between reason and passion is no longer dichotomous, but co-inclusive in the narratives of the self – seen as projections towards a powerful ”inside” of the being, and not – as “Freudically” was thought to be – a withdrawal from reality. This is what I have analysed in the study bellow, following the mirage of the literary machine from S. Beckett’s “Molloy” and the new type of character it proposes, Molloy as Homo Natura, a genuine ”producer of intensive quantities” (apud. G. Deleuze & F. Guattari).
Keywords: Molloy, Samuel Beckett, Deleuze & Guattari, modernity, identity crisis, stigma, norm, deviance, abnormality, control, corporality, autistic, Homo Natura, anti-Oedipian, intensive quantities, desiring machines
1. Michel Foucault – Anormalii. Cursuri ținute la College de France 1974 -1975 (trad. de Dan Radu Stănescu, postfață de Bogdan Ghiu), Univers, București, p.135.
2. Romul Munteanu – prefață la „Molloy. Nuvele și Texte de neființă. Cum e. Mercier și Camier”, de S. Beckett, Univers, București, 1990 (trad. de Gabriela și Constantin Abăluță, postfață de Constantin Abăluță), p.22.
3. Ibid., p.10.
Samuel Beckett – Molloy. Nuvele și Texte de neființă. Cum e. Mercier și Camier / Molloy. Short Stories and Texts for Nothing. How It Is. Mercier and Camier (translated by Gabriela și Constantin Abăluță, afterword by Constantin Abăluță), Univers, București, 1990.
Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari – L’Anti-Œdipe (Capitalisme et schizofrenie) / Anti-Oedipus (Capitalism and Schizophrenia), Nouvelle édition augmentée (I ed.1972), Les Editions de Minuit, Collection “Critique”.
Michel Foucault – Anormalii. Cursuri ținute la College de France 1974 -1975 / Abnormals. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974-1975, Univers, București.
Anthony Giddens – Modernitatea și identitatea de sine. Sinele și societatea în Epoca Modernă Târzie / Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Age, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1991.
Richard Jenkins – Identitatea socială / Social Identity (translated by Alex Butucelea), Univers, București, 2000.
