Abstract
This paper focuses on the allure of the maternal, a metapresence in Samuel Beckett’s play Footfalls. The paper examines the pre-Oedipal role of the mother into shaping the vocal and kinetic rhythms of her daughter. There is a detailed discussion on the force that steers the daughter towards the mother and vice versa and how this force resists the spectacular matricide that the audience longs to commit on the theatrical space. This piece will seek to trace the play of the incestuous auditory and visual intimacy between May, pacing up and down the wooden plank, and her Mother. The paper will also discuss the tendencies of a defensive narcissism in these women that is gratifying, a natural consequence of pathogenic repression and concealment, and symbolizes plenitude and plurality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ackerley, C. J., & Gontarski, S. E. (2004). The grove companion to Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove Press.
Beckett, S. (1986). Samuel Beckett: The complete dramatic works. London: Faber and Faber.
Beckett, S. (2009). Three novels: Molloy, Malone dies, the unnamable. New York: Grove Press.
Bryden, M. (1993). Women in Samuel Beckett’s prose and drama. New York: Barnes and Noble Books.
Chodorow, N. (1989). Feminism and psychoanalytic theory. New Haven Conn: Yale University Press.
Cixous, H., & Clément, C. (1986). Sorties. In The newly born woman (trans. Betsy Wing, intro. Sandra M. Gilbert). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Diamond, E. (2004). Feminist readings of Beckett. In L. Oppenheim (Ed.), Palgrave advances in Samuel Beckett studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Doll, M. A. (1988). Beckett and Myth: An archetypal approach. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Eliot, T. S. (1922). The wasteland. London: Boni and Liveright Press.
Gilman, P. C. (1995). The yellow wallpaper. In R. Shulman (Ed.), The yellow wallpaper and other stories. New York: Penguin.
Greer, G. (1986). The madwoman’s underclothes: Essays and occasional writings. New York: The Atlantic Monthly Press.
Irigaray, L. (1977) This sex which is not one (Catherine Porter, with Carolyn Burke, Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Irigaray, L. (1981). And one doesn’t stir without the other. Signs, 7(1), 60–67.
Irigaray, L. (1985). Speculum of the other woman (G. C. Gill, Trans.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Irigaray, L. (1991a). The bodily encounter with the mother. In M. Whitford (Ed.), The Irigaray Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Irigaray, L. (1991b). Volume without contours. In M. Whitford (Ed.), The Irigaray Reader (p. 1991). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Jung, C. G. (2006). The undiscovered self. New York: Signet.
Kaplan, C. (1986). Language and gender. In Sea changes: Essays on culture and feminism. London: Verso.
Knowlson, J. (2004). Damned to fame: The life of Samuel Beckett. New York: Grove Press.
Kristeva, J. (1986). Stabat mater. In T. Moi (Ed.), The Kristeva Reader. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mcmullan, A. (2005). Theatre on trial. New York: Routledge.
Mooney, S. (2006). Ghost rooms: The late theatre, in Samuel Beckett. Devon: Northcote House.
Rank, O., & Tucker, H. (1971). Double a psychoanalytic study. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Psychology Notes: TCD MS10971/7 and MS10971/8. Oxford: Oxford Brookes University, PhD Thesis: 2004.
Whitelaw, B. (1995). Billie Whitelaw…Who He?. London: Houder and Stoughton.
Wills, C. (1989). Upsetting the public: Carnival, hysteria and women’s texts. In K. Hirschkop & D. Shepherd (Eds.), Bakhtin and cultural theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ahlawat, I. Tracing the Mother to the Daughter, the Self to the Image: Separation Anxiety in Beckett’s Footfalls . Sexuality & Culture 21, 651–663 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9409-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-017-9409-y