In the Shadow of the Miracle - The Japanese Economy Since the End of

In the Shadow of the Miracle - The Japanese Economy Since the End of High-speed Growth (Paperback) - Arthur J Alexander Product Description

This book aims neither to circumscribe Beckett's oeuvre within an intellectual tradition nor to view his work as a reaction against any tradition, but instead to explore the Beckettian mentality or attitude of cognitive apprehension, which seeks only the reinforcement of its own preconceptions. The study explains how Beckett's art disintegrates established philosophical systems, even as it seems to imitate them, and constructs an interpretation of experience founded entirely on concepts of its own devising. In this context, the Beckettian criterion of truth is not what things are, but what they seem to be, from the point of view considering them. Trapped in Thought addresses such fundamental concerns as (a) how the Beckettian mentality began, (b) what concepts it develops to sustain its mode of thought, (c) how the mentality wards off factors which would refute or heal it, and, most paradoxical of all, (d) why this mentality reduces the mind to an autonomous principle of thought, enabled to think without the attention of its own awareness. The study combines thematic interpretation of the entire canon, from multiple viewpoints, with close reading of representative Beckettian texts. It presents very clear, detailed, and original analyses, richly illustrated by quotations.