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A “healthy honest-to-God out-of-the-door life-loving deflowering”

The (Self-)Censorship of Beckett’s Radio Drama on the BBC Third Programme

In: Samuel Beckett Today / Aujourd'hui
Author:
Pim Verhulst University of Antwerp Belgium Antwerp

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Abstract

This article analyzes Beckett’s radio plays Embers and Words and Music in the context of the BBC Third Programme and its cultural politics, to argue that they engage with the censorship of his work, especially when it comes to sexual matters, in hitherto unexplored ways. While Embers both challenges and eludes censorship by means of ambiguous or abstract phrasing, Words and Music builds on this strategy and thematizes self-censorship through music. This connects Beckett’s radio plays from the 1950s and 1960s to earlier works from the 1930s like Murphy and Dream of Fair to Middling Women, widening the censorship debate.

Résumé

Cet article analyse deux pièces radiophoniques de Beckett, Cendres et Paroles et musique, dans le contexte du Third Programme de la BBC et de sa politique culturelle. Il s’ agit de montrer que Beckett y aborde le sujet de la censure, en particulier des questions sexuelles, d’ une manière jusqu’ ici inexplorée. Alors que Cendres défie la censure, tout en la contournant par le biais d’ une formulation ambiguë ou abstraite, Paroles et musique s’ appuie sur cette même stratégie et thématise la question de l’ autocensure à travers la musique. Les pièces radiophoniques des années 1950 et 1960 sont ainsi rapprochées d’ œuvres antérieures des années 1930 comme Murphy et Dream of Fair to Middling Women, ce qui permet d’ élargir le débat sur la censure.

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