Project Narrative is hosting a hybrid event with Visiting Scholar Yue Wang!
This talk examines the narrative of aging in Samuel Beckett’s Molloy. In Beckett’s work, old age is not merely a biological stage but, intertwined with his creative principles of “impotence” and “ignorance,” becomes a figure of the ontological condition of human existence. The talk argues that this representation is realized through a spiral narrative structure that links “impotence” with a paradoxical form of strength. In Molloy, aging appears as a state beyond temporal and teleological limits—an ambiguous existence between ending and not-ending. The instability of subjectivity produces binary tensions and a negative narrative logic that enables Beckett to represent both the chaos of reality and the condition of modern existence. Through repetition and circularity, this dialectical process sustains itself, forming a spiral model of narration characterized by continual self-awareness and reflection. The spiral narrative model thus enables Beckett to “declare his impotence with force,” a paradox that defines the distinctive power of his narrative of aging.
Meeting ID: 925 8218 5611
Password: 838658