TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - "The aesthetics of relinquishment": Natural and social contracts in Beckett's "The end"
JO  - Samuel Beckett Today - Aujourd'hui
A1  - Giles, J.M.
SP  - 175
EP  - 188
VL  - 20
IS  - 
N2  - This article explores the notion of Beckett as an ecocritical writer by considering Lawrence Buell's criteria for an environmentally-centered work in terms of Beckett's short prose piece "The End." As the nameless narrator moves from a monastic to a hermetic to a mendicant existence and then to death by suicide, he cycles between city and country, growing increasingly anonymous. Beckett casts doubt on the ethics of the "social contract," formed in human culture, and suggests that the "natural contract" between humans and their environment may be the viable one, although it may lead to relinquishment and death.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0927-3131
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/18757405-020001015
ID  - ref1
ER  -