ABSTRACT

Carlo Emilio Gadda and Samuel Beckett explore a range of techniques aimed at subverting and undermining the linearity and syntax of the traditional, nineteenth-century novel whilst transcending linguistic norms to find a means of expressing the inexpressible. There are a number of significant parallels between the 'baroque' character of Gadda's writings and Bakhtin's emphasis on the role of the carnivalesque in dialogical discourse, which consists mainly in its essentially subversive effect. Gadda consistently challenges the organizing role of the author through the polyphony of his narrative voices, which is in turn mirrored in the heterogeneous structure of his texts. Beckett, on the other hand, strategically employs metatextual devices, duplication and strategic repetition whilst displaying a similar fondness for annotation to unveil the inadequacy of conventional linguistic and syntactical structures as a means of representation. Gadda's and Beckett's struggle with the medium of language crystallizes their intermediate position between a traditional and an intrinsically skeptical approach to literature.