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    Art of noise: Beckett's language in a culture of information

    Salisbury, Laura (2010) Art of noise: Beckett's language in a culture of information. Samuel Beckett Today/Aujourd'hui 22 , pp. 355-371. ISSN 0927-3131.

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    Abstract

    Using Beckett's notes on Maxwell's Demon from the “Whoroscope” Notebook alongside his psychology notes on the relationship between 'figure' and 'ground' in the perception of meaning, this article suggests that in the 1930s and 40s Beckett began to use language in a way that troubles the distinction between what can technically be described as signal and noise, intended and unintended information. It argues that Beckett's desire to hear and feel the noise of language is not part of an evocation of entropic decline towards heat death, but forms part of an understanding of the literary text as bearing signs of life.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: ISBN: 9789042031661
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): Samuel Beckett, noise, information theory, modernism
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Depositing User: Laura Salisbury
    Date Deposited: 19 Oct 2012 09:16
    Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 12:31
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/5272

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