Quietism and Literary Creation

Abstract: In Still: Samuel Beckett's Quietism , Andy Wimbush examines Quietism, considered both as a practice and a perennial standpoint in religion and philosophy, showing it to have nourished Samuel Beckett's creation. It favored detachment from set models, and the acceptance of contradiction and incoherency. Thus, rather than leading to a search for solutions or solipsism, Wimbush argues, Beckett's mode of Quietism was turned toward maintaining the problematic nature of his literary constructions, highlighting tension and the absence of any solution. Quietism also offered Beckett the means to confront his own personal problems, including his bodily symptoms, in his aim to transform them into creation.