Writing Derrida Thinking Beckett: A Study of the Limits Between Philosophy and Literature

The limits between modern philosophy and literature are difficult to define. In the 20th century, the way we write theatre, novels, philosophical treatises, criticism and theory changed dramatically. This change presents itself especially in the relations between artistic expression and the philosophical search for knowledge. In this dissertation, Writing Derrida Thinking Beckett: A Study of the Limits between Philosophy and Literature, I chose these two authors as a case study of the shifting boundaries between modern literature and philosophy. I structured the analysis by focusing on three constant themes in the work of these authors. These themes are important for both literature and philosophy, because they present a way of questioning human existence in its beginning and end, as well as one of the forms through which we come to represent and come to know our lives and the world. The themes are: the mother or birth, death, and the image.