The Unsaid in Samuel Beckettʼs “The Unnamable”: The Subject and the Mind

Abstract

: The article analyses the concept of the mind in Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable to argue that the subject of the monologue may be interpreted either as a spirit describable in terms of Cartesian substance dualism or as a purely linguistic manifestation of consciousness that is fragmented and not fully articulated. The narrator appears as a “diminished mind” or a “virtually disembodied” voice (Kennedy 1989: 139) that obsessively and desperately searches for the lost or fragmented core of the self (Kennedy 1989: 140; cf. McDonald 2007: 103). The voice might come from a soul suspended in a limbo or in a Geulingian hell where the devil makes its inhabitants uncertain of anything and encourages them to continue their searches for meaning and sense despite the pointlessness of the endeavour (Uhlmann 2006: 104–105). However, the voice may also result from an undisciplined process of writing that produces an uncertain and underdeveloped identity of the narrator. The two interpretations may be treated as compatible with each other.