Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory

Badra Menouer

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

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Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory

Badra Menouer

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 8, Issue 2)

Received: 9 March 2023 Accepted: 15 April 2023 Published: 10 May 2023

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Abstract

Throughout his career, Beckett’s characters are, in a perpetual exploration of their inner world, for they begin to realize that knowledge of the self is just as elusive as knowledge of the outside world. This loss of self, which marks all of Beckett's characters deeply, leaves them in a kind of no man's-land between an unknowable external world and an untraceable self. Without a solid foundation for their beliefs, whether in the outer world of objects or the inner world of the self. Hence, Beckett's characters find themselves in a position of extreme epistemological weakness. Without a doubt, Beckett's most enduring contribution to world literature is his portrayal of this interstitial zone of uncertainty between subject and object. In dealing with the outside world, the Beckettian character adopts a habit that serves as both protector and prisoner. This habit refers to a set of thoughts, strategies, and (re)actions that memory calls upon throughout the attempts to make sense of and negotiate the world. Through these habitual adjustment processes, time divides self from self and subject from object, ensuring that we neither remain the same nor grasp the dynamic object-in-itself. However, habit distorts this temporal dynamism, suggesting that subjects and objects are fundamentally unchanged from one moment to the next. By using psychological research methodology as well as Proust's concept of habit, which examines the relationship between voluntary and involuntary memory and the ego's surface, This paper is twofold: first, to explore Beckett’s use of habit and memory in his controversial play Waiting for Godot to discover his self-identity, and second to demonstrate how Beckett's characters eventually fail in achieving their authentic selves.

Published in	English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 8, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
Page(s)	22-27
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Beckett, Habit, Memory, Proust, Self-Identity, Time, Waiting for Godot

References

[1]	Andrews, B. R. (1903). “Habit”. The American Journal of Psychology, 14 (2), 121-142. JSTOR. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
[2]	McMullan, A. (1993). Theatre on Trial: Samuel Beckett’s later drama. Routledge, London, p. 202.
[3]	Beckett, S. (1954). Waiting for Godot. Grove Press, New York; pp. 1-89.
[4]	Beckett, S. (1956). Waiting for Godot. Faber and Faber, London; pp. 49-61.
[5]	Beckett, S. (1957). Proust. New York: Grove, Print. pp. 6-19.
[6]	Beckett, S. (1999). Proust: And Three Dialogues with Georges Duthuit. Calder, London; pp. 2-19.
[7]	Beckett, S. (2006). The Complete Dramatic Works. Faber and Faber, London; p. 516.
[8]	Bergson, H. (2005). Matter and Memory. Trans. N. M. Paul and W. S. Palmer. New York: Zone Books.
[9]	States, B. O. (1978). The Shape of Paradox. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London.
[10]	Fisher, G. (2005). The biology of aging. Demos Medical Publishing. pp. 2-3.
[11]	Hoffman, F. J. (1962). Samuel Beckett: The Language of Self. Dutton, New York.
[12]	Gilman, R. (1995). Chekhov's Plays, An Opening into Eternity. Yale University Press, New Haven and London; p. 177.
[13]	Graver, L. (1964). Samuel Beckett: The Language of Self. University of Chicago Press; p. 129.
[14]	Kalb, J. (1991). Beckett in Performance. Cambridge University Press, New York; pp. 22-516.
[15]	Ehlers, N. (2007). “The Failed Search for Self-Identity in Krapp’s Last Tape”, p. 5, www.jmu.edu/writeon/docs/2008/Ehlers.pdf, retrieved in May 2010.
[16]	Olney, J. (1993). “Memory and the Narrative Imperative: St. Augustine and Samuel Beckett” in New Literary History: A Journal of Theory and Interpretation, 24 (4), 857-880. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
[17]	Pothast, U. (2008). The Metaphysical Vision: Arthur Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Art and Life and Samuel Beckett’s Own Way to Make Use of It. New edition, Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers; p. 109.
[18]	Proust, M. (1925/1981). In Search of Lost Time: The Captive and the Fugitive (C. K. Scott Moncrieff & Terence Kilmartin, Trans.). Modern Library; p. 517.
[19]	Proust, M. (1954). Le Temps Retrouvé. Gallimard-Folio, Paris; p. 6.
[20]	Proust, M. (1954). La Prisonnière. Gallimard-Folio, Paris; pp. 80-227.
[21]	Proust, M. (1987). A la recherche du temps perdu, ed. Jean-Yves Tadie, 5 vol. s, (Gallimard, Les Editions de la Pléiade), Paris.

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Badra Menouer. (2023). Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. English Language, Literature & Culture, 8(2), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

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ACS Style

Badra Menouer. Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2023, 8(2), 22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

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AMA Style

Badra Menouer. Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2023;8(2):22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11,
  author = {Badra Menouer},
  title = {Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {8},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20230802.11},
  abstract = {Throughout his career, Beckett’s characters are, in a perpetual exploration of their inner world, for they begin to realize that knowledge of the self is just as elusive as knowledge of the outside world. This loss of self, which marks all of Beckett's characters deeply, leaves them in a kind of no man's-land between an unknowable external world and an untraceable self. Without a solid foundation for their beliefs, whether in the outer world of objects or the inner world of the self. Hence, Beckett's characters find themselves in a position of extreme epistemological weakness. Without a doubt, Beckett's most enduring contribution to world literature is his portrayal of this interstitial zone of uncertainty between subject and object. In dealing with the outside world, the Beckettian character adopts a habit that serves as both protector and prisoner. This habit refers to a set of thoughts, strategies, and (re)actions that memory calls upon throughout the attempts to make sense of and negotiate the world. Through these habitual adjustment processes, time divides self from self and subject from object, ensuring that we neither remain the same nor grasp the dynamic object-in-itself. However, habit distorts this temporal dynamism, suggesting that subjects and objects are fundamentally unchanged from one moment to the next. By using psychological research methodology as well as Proust's concept of habit, which examines the relationship between voluntary and involuntary memory and the ego's surface, This paper is twofold: first, to explore Beckett’s use of habit and memory in his controversial play Waiting for Godot to discover his self-identity, and second to demonstrate how Beckett's characters eventually fail in achieving their authentic selves.},
 year = {2023}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory
AU  - Badra Menouer
Y1  - 2023/05/10
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
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EP  - 27
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
AB  - Throughout his career, Beckett’s characters are, in a perpetual exploration of their inner world, for they begin to realize that knowledge of the self is just as elusive as knowledge of the outside world. This loss of self, which marks all of Beckett's characters deeply, leaves them in a kind of no man's-land between an unknowable external world and an untraceable self. Without a solid foundation for their beliefs, whether in the outer world of objects or the inner world of the self. Hence, Beckett's characters find themselves in a position of extreme epistemological weakness. Without a doubt, Beckett's most enduring contribution to world literature is his portrayal of this interstitial zone of uncertainty between subject and object. In dealing with the outside world, the Beckettian character adopts a habit that serves as both protector and prisoner. This habit refers to a set of thoughts, strategies, and (re)actions that memory calls upon throughout the attempts to make sense of and negotiate the world. Through these habitual adjustment processes, time divides self from self and subject from object, ensuring that we neither remain the same nor grasp the dynamic object-in-itself. However, habit distorts this temporal dynamism, suggesting that subjects and objects are fundamentally unchanged from one moment to the next. By using psychological research methodology as well as Proust's concept of habit, which examines the relationship between voluntary and involuntary memory and the ego's surface, This paper is twofold: first, to explore Beckett’s use of habit and memory in his controversial play Waiting for Godot to discover his self-identity, and second to demonstrate how Beckett's characters eventually fail in achieving their authentic selves.
VL  - 8
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Badra Menouer

English Department, University Abou Bekr Belkaid, Tlemcen, Algeria

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Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Badra Menouer. (2023). Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. English Language, Literature & Culture, 8(2), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Badra Menouer. Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2023, 8(2), 22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Badra Menouer. Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2023;8(2):22-27. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11,
  author = {Badra Menouer},
  title = {Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {8},
  number = {2},
  pages = {22-27},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20230802.11},
  abstract = {Throughout his career, Beckett’s characters are, in a perpetual exploration of their inner world, for they begin to realize that knowledge of the self is just as elusive as knowledge of the outside world. This loss of self, which marks all of Beckett's characters deeply, leaves them in a kind of no man's-land between an unknowable external world and an untraceable self. Without a solid foundation for their beliefs, whether in the outer world of objects or the inner world of the self. Hence, Beckett's characters find themselves in a position of extreme epistemological weakness. Without a doubt, Beckett's most enduring contribution to world literature is his portrayal of this interstitial zone of uncertainty between subject and object. In dealing with the outside world, the Beckettian character adopts a habit that serves as both protector and prisoner. This habit refers to a set of thoughts, strategies, and (re)actions that memory calls upon throughout the attempts to make sense of and negotiate the world. Through these habitual adjustment processes, time divides self from self and subject from object, ensuring that we neither remain the same nor grasp the dynamic object-in-itself. However, habit distorts this temporal dynamism, suggesting that subjects and objects are fundamentally unchanged from one moment to the next. By using psychological research methodology as well as Proust's concept of habit, which examines the relationship between voluntary and involuntary memory and the ego's surface, This paper is twofold: first, to explore Beckett’s use of habit and memory in his controversial play Waiting for Godot to discover his self-identity, and second to demonstrate how Beckett's characters eventually fail in achieving their authentic selves.},
 year = {2023}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Exploring the Self Through Habit and Memory
AU  - Badra Menouer
Y1  - 2023/05/10
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 22
EP  - 27
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230802.11
AB  - Throughout his career, Beckett’s characters are, in a perpetual exploration of their inner world, for they begin to realize that knowledge of the self is just as elusive as knowledge of the outside world. This loss of self, which marks all of Beckett's characters deeply, leaves them in a kind of no man's-land between an unknowable external world and an untraceable self. Without a solid foundation for their beliefs, whether in the outer world of objects or the inner world of the self. Hence, Beckett's characters find themselves in a position of extreme epistemological weakness. Without a doubt, Beckett's most enduring contribution to world literature is his portrayal of this interstitial zone of uncertainty between subject and object. In dealing with the outside world, the Beckettian character adopts a habit that serves as both protector and prisoner. This habit refers to a set of thoughts, strategies, and (re)actions that memory calls upon throughout the attempts to make sense of and negotiate the world. Through these habitual adjustment processes, time divides self from self and subject from object, ensuring that we neither remain the same nor grasp the dynamic object-in-itself. However, habit distorts this temporal dynamism, suggesting that subjects and objects are fundamentally unchanged from one moment to the next. By using psychological research methodology as well as Proust's concept of habit, which examines the relationship between voluntary and involuntary memory and the ego's surface, This paper is twofold: first, to explore Beckett’s use of habit and memory in his controversial play Waiting for Godot to discover his self-identity, and second to demonstrate how Beckett's characters eventually fail in achieving their authentic selves.
VL  - 8
IS  - 2
ER  -

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