The Spul(aris)ation of "I"

Year 2012, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 165 - 175, 01.02.2012

Ela İpek Gündüz

Abstract

Keywords

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The Specul(aris)ation of “I”

Abstract

In this article, the main aim is to analyze Samuel Beckett’s short absurd play “Not I” (written as a dramatic monologue in 1972) through speculation/specul(aris)ation concepts of Luce Irigaray including also a Lacanian perspective. Under the light of the Irigarayian concept of specul(ariz)ation, the invisible and unknown nature of the dark hollow (vagina)/ Mouth as a reflection of the female self and sexuality will be explained. Irigaray herself defines the concept as a process of alienation because she thinks the “absence of the subject from its own image” gives specularization a “de-realizing power”. In other words, because women are defamiliarised to their own self as a result of not seeing their own image, they are invisible. Likewise, the Mouth (as a fragment) in Beckett’s play becomes alienated to her unrepresented body. 

Keywords

Specul(aris)ation, Samuel, Beckett’s

References

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• Beckett, Samuel. (1973). “Not I”, (London: Faber&Faber).
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