The Leibnizian Monad and the Self through the Lens of Carlo Emilio Gadda's and Samuel Beckett's Writings

Wehling-Giorgi, Katrin

Abstract

This paper examines the reinterpretation of the Leibnizian notion of the monad in relation to the concept of the self by two contemporary twentieth-century European authors, Carlo Emilio Gadda and Samuel Beckett. By analyzing how far they both refashion and distort the rationalist philosopher’s terminology and its basic tenets, in particular those relating to the concept of identity, I intend to show how a comparative approach to these two artistic processes brings to light some essential features of both Gadda’s and Beckett’s notion of identity and its disintegration. As I shall argue, the contrast which transpires between the Leibnizian, divinely inspired theory of pre-established harmony and the two modern authors’ critique of the latter highlights some of the main characteristics of the modernist crisis of the unitary idea of the self, and it crystallizes a number of unexpected parallel traits in the oeuvre of the two writers. For this purpose, particular attention will be given to Gadda’s early theoretical writings and Beckett’s early fiction up to the French Trilogy. My wider research project centres on a comparative study of the concept of artistic creation in the work of both authors, with a particular focus on their individual techniques of linguistic and narrative displacement. The potential parallels between the two authors have hardly been discussed in secondary literature to date, and Gadda in particular, who is often considered an isolated phenomenon in a national literary context, has not received due attention on a European literary platform.

Citation

Wehling-Giorgi, K. (2007). The Leibnizian Monad and the Self through the Lens of Carlo Emilio Gadda's and Samuel Beckett's Writings. MHRA working papers in the humanities, 2, 57-68

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2007
• Deposit Date: Sep 5, 2014
• Journal: MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities
• Electronic ISSN: 1994-8662
• Volume: 2
• Pages: 57-68
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1454653
• Publisher URL: http://www.mhra.org.uk/ojs/index.php/wph/article/viewFile/43/47