The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s <i>The Unnamable</i>

Azita Zamani

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable

Azita Zamani

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 2)

Received: 10 April 2020 Accepted: 5 May 2020 Published: 18 May 2020

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Abstract

The present research investigates the parallelism between Derrida’s reading of Plato’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Out of the rationality of logos, both resist being named and defined. Indeed, the complexity in their comprehension is due to their rejecting the rules and principles of language. As language constructs mentality, whatever is out of its boundaries, remains unnamable. In deconstructing Khora and The Unnamable, based on logos/mythos binary opposition, their mise en abyme structures resemble mythos to some extent, while the criteria are not met thoroughly. All the philosophical efforts in defining their essence fail and both remain inexplicable at the end. While deconstructing them based on different binary oppositions, we reach this point that they can be both and, at the same time, neither this nor that. The fact is that The Unnamable and Khora are situated somewhere between participation and exclusion. Oscillating at the threshold of presence/absence binary opposition, both can be comparable to subjectile, where the act of becoming is possible and the appropriate context for artistic representation happens to be. Khora acts as a vessel of creation of beings and forms, and The Unnamable creates a space for forming a narration out of the words. In the end, due to the lack of essence, none of them retains anything and both remains intact and neutral. In the end, all the efforts in attributing right characteristics to pin them down would lead into a pile of interpretations and metaphors, which are not referable and reliable and cannot be accounted more than a couple of subjective projections. Their existence and any determination toward their reality remain questionable.

Published in	English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 2)
DOI	10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12
Page(s)	60-68
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), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Plato, Derrida, Beckett, Khora, Unnamable, Self, Other, Identity, Reality, Existence

References

[1]	Ahmadgoli, K., & Taheri N. (Fall & Winter 2014). The Melancholic Unnamable: Kristeva and the Question of Subjectivity in Beckett’s The Unnamable. Teaching English Language Journal, 8 (2), 145-167.
[2]	Amiri, S. (Aug. 2017). Tracing the Elements of Absurdism Fear and Despair in Samuel Beckett’s the Unnamable: A Foucauldian Historical Study. The International Journal of Humanities & Social Studies, 8 (8), 130-139.
[3]	Audrey, W. (Nov. 2011). From Figure to Fissure: Beckett's Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. Modern Philology, 109 (2), 245-265.
[4]	Barks, C. (2008). Winter Sky. Georgia: University of Georgia Press.
[5]	Beckett, S. (2011). Three Novels. New York: Grove.
[6]	Brown, A. D. (2017). Samuel Beckett and the Language of the Little Creatures: Samuel Beckett and the Language of the Unnamable. Senior Project. New York: Bard College.
[7]	Derrida, J. (1995). On the Name. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[8]	Harper, M. P. (2012). Chaos as a Mode of Living in Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable. Journal of Modern Literature, 35 (4), 151-162.
[9]	Hovind, J. (Jan. 2018). Samuel Beckett’s Invention of Nothing: Molly, Literary History, and a Beckettian Theory of Character. Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, 16 (1), 65-87.
[10]	Mirza, X. Stages of Spiritual Awakening in Divan-e-Shams Tabrez. Istanbul: Istanbul Aydin University.
[11]	Nayebpour, K. (Jul. 2015). Representation of a Disrupted Mind and Anguished Self in Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6 (4 S2), 462-468.
[12]	Nojoumian, A. A. (2004). Samuel Beckett's The Unnamable: The Story of That Impossible Place Named Silence. Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui, 14, 387-404.
[13]	Shaw, J. (2010). Impotence and Making in Samuel Beckett's Trilogy Molloy, Malone Dies and the Unnamable and How It Is. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
[14]	Stewart, P. (2014). Suffering Fiction in the Unnamable. Samuel Beckett Today - Aujourd'hui, 26, 165-177.
[15]	Szafraniec, A. (2004). Beckett, Derrida, and the Event of Literature. PhD Dissertation. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam. Ponsen & Looijen Press.

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Azita Zamani. (2020). The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(2), 60-68. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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Azita Zamani. The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(2), 60-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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AMA Style

Azita Zamani. The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(2):60-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12,
  author = {Azita Zamani},
  title = {The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {2},
  pages = {60-68},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200502.12},
  abstract = {The present research investigates the parallelism between Derrida’s reading of Plato’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Out of the rationality of logos, both resist being named and defined. Indeed, the complexity in their comprehension is due to their rejecting the rules and principles of language. As language constructs mentality, whatever is out of its boundaries, remains unnamable. In deconstructing Khora and The Unnamable, based on logos/mythos binary opposition, their mise en abyme structures resemble mythos to some extent, while the criteria are not met thoroughly. All the philosophical efforts in defining their essence fail and both remain inexplicable at the end. While deconstructing them based on different binary oppositions, we reach this point that they can be both and, at the same time, neither this nor that. The fact is that The Unnamable and Khora are situated somewhere between participation and exclusion. Oscillating at the threshold of presence/absence binary opposition, both can be comparable to subjectile, where the act of becoming is possible and the appropriate context for artistic representation happens to be. Khora acts as a vessel of creation of beings and forms, and The Unnamable creates a space for forming a narration out of the words. In the end, due to the lack of essence, none of them retains anything and both remains intact and neutral. In the end, all the efforts in attributing right characteristics to pin them down would lead into a pile of interpretations and metaphors, which are not referable and reliable and cannot be accounted more than a couple of subjective projections. Their existence and any determination toward their reality remain questionable.},
 year = {2020}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable
AU  - Azita Zamani
Y1  - 2020/05/18
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12
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PB  - Science Publishing Group
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AB  - The present research investigates the parallelism between Derrida’s reading of Plato’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Out of the rationality of logos, both resist being named and defined. Indeed, the complexity in their comprehension is due to their rejecting the rules and principles of language. As language constructs mentality, whatever is out of its boundaries, remains unnamable. In deconstructing Khora and The Unnamable, based on logos/mythos binary opposition, their mise en abyme structures resemble mythos to some extent, while the criteria are not met thoroughly. All the philosophical efforts in defining their essence fail and both remain inexplicable at the end. While deconstructing them based on different binary oppositions, we reach this point that they can be both and, at the same time, neither this nor that. The fact is that The Unnamable and Khora are situated somewhere between participation and exclusion. Oscillating at the threshold of presence/absence binary opposition, both can be comparable to subjectile, where the act of becoming is possible and the appropriate context for artistic representation happens to be. Khora acts as a vessel of creation of beings and forms, and The Unnamable creates a space for forming a narration out of the words. In the end, due to the lack of essence, none of them retains anything and both remains intact and neutral. In the end, all the efforts in attributing right characteristics to pin them down would lead into a pile of interpretations and metaphors, which are not referable and reliable and cannot be accounted more than a couple of subjective projections. Their existence and any determination toward their reality remain questionable.
VL  - 5
IS  - 2
ER  -

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Author Information

Azita Zamani

Science & Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

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APA Style

Azita Zamani. (2020). The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(2), 60-68. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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ACS Style

Azita Zamani. The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(2), 60-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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AMA Style

Azita Zamani. The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(2):60-68. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12

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@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12,
  author = {Azita Zamani},
  title = {The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {5},
  number = {2},
  pages = {60-68},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200502.12},
  abstract = {The present research investigates the parallelism between Derrida’s reading of Plato’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Out of the rationality of logos, both resist being named and defined. Indeed, the complexity in their comprehension is due to their rejecting the rules and principles of language. As language constructs mentality, whatever is out of its boundaries, remains unnamable. In deconstructing Khora and The Unnamable, based on logos/mythos binary opposition, their mise en abyme structures resemble mythos to some extent, while the criteria are not met thoroughly. All the philosophical efforts in defining their essence fail and both remain inexplicable at the end. While deconstructing them based on different binary oppositions, we reach this point that they can be both and, at the same time, neither this nor that. The fact is that The Unnamable and Khora are situated somewhere between participation and exclusion. Oscillating at the threshold of presence/absence binary opposition, both can be comparable to subjectile, where the act of becoming is possible and the appropriate context for artistic representation happens to be. Khora acts as a vessel of creation of beings and forms, and The Unnamable creates a space for forming a narration out of the words. In the end, due to the lack of essence, none of them retains anything and both remains intact and neutral. In the end, all the efforts in attributing right characteristics to pin them down would lead into a pile of interpretations and metaphors, which are not referable and reliable and cannot be accounted more than a couple of subjective projections. Their existence and any determination toward their reality remain questionable.},
 year = {2020}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Self without the Other in Derrida’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable
AU  - Azita Zamani
Y1  - 2020/05/18
PY  - 2020
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 60
EP  - 68
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200502.12
AB  - The present research investigates the parallelism between Derrida’s reading of Plato’s Khora and Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable. Out of the rationality of logos, both resist being named and defined. Indeed, the complexity in their comprehension is due to their rejecting the rules and principles of language. As language constructs mentality, whatever is out of its boundaries, remains unnamable. In deconstructing Khora and The Unnamable, based on logos/mythos binary opposition, their mise en abyme structures resemble mythos to some extent, while the criteria are not met thoroughly. All the philosophical efforts in defining their essence fail and both remain inexplicable at the end. While deconstructing them based on different binary oppositions, we reach this point that they can be both and, at the same time, neither this nor that. The fact is that The Unnamable and Khora are situated somewhere between participation and exclusion. Oscillating at the threshold of presence/absence binary opposition, both can be comparable to subjectile, where the act of becoming is possible and the appropriate context for artistic representation happens to be. Khora acts as a vessel of creation of beings and forms, and The Unnamable creates a space for forming a narration out of the words. In the end, due to the lack of essence, none of them retains anything and both remains intact and neutral. In the end, all the efforts in attributing right characteristics to pin them down would lead into a pile of interpretations and metaphors, which are not referable and reliable and cannot be accounted more than a couple of subjective projections. Their existence and any determination toward their reality remain questionable.
VL  - 5
IS  - 2
ER  -

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