Abstract

This dissertation investigates repetition in the work of Deleuze, Beckett, and Derrida. I argue that these writers employ a contemporary conceptualization of repetition---repetition and difference---in order to undermine some of the more fundamental assumptions of Western metaphysical thought, among them origins and copies, beginnings and endings, and clear and distinct subjects. ;Chapter One traces the philosophical evolution of repetition from Plato to Derrida and Deleuze, while exploring the extent to which we are still conditioned by this traditional model. That chapter closes by introducing the problematic of the "unthinkable," or that which lies beyond our current means of representation. All three writers commit themselves to exploring the "unthinkable" with repetition. ;Chapter Two investigates genre as a classificatory term. I explore the compulsion of many Beckett scholars to fit his work within certain categories of genre and discursive form . Reviewing the literary and philosophical scholarship on Beckett's work reveals much about how these scholars read Beckett's texts and how they read and interpret in general. ;Chapter Three explores the notion of originality in writing. The first half of this chapter reasons that no text is ever "original" because no text can ever be self-sufficient. The second half of this chapter investigates the relationship between repetition and translation. I argue that repetition in Derrida and Beckett's work demonstrates how translation as an exact transposition of signification from one language to another cannot exist. While every text is multiple, every translation is singular and as "original" as the "original" text. ;Chapter Four probes the relationship between presence, subjectivity, and repetition. First, I examine how Beckett employs repetition in order to expose the illusion of "full presence" some ten years before Derrida. I conclude this chapter by exploring how repetition in Deleuze's Difference and Repetition and Beckett's work in general renders ambiguous the traditional conceptualization of the subject. Hardly a unified and authoritative being, the subject in all three writer's work is fragmented, indefinable, and ultimately the product of language