Samuel Beckett's Breath on Screen: Damien Hirst’s Adaptation

The Beckett on Film project, which includes nineteen stage plays, is an indication of how Beckett’s work’s journey from stage to screen can be creative, attractive, and entertaining. As a collaborative work of RTÉ (Raidiό Teilifis Éireann), Channel 4 (the British broadcaster), the Irish Film Board,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Filiz Kutlu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: The English Language and Literature Research Association of Türkiye 2021-04-01
Series:Ideas: Journal of English Literary Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/2262804
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Beckett on Film project, which includes nineteen stage plays, is an indication of how Beckett’s work’s journey from stage to screen can be creative, attractive, and entertaining. As a collaborative work of RTÉ (Raidiό Teilifis Éireann), Channel 4 (the British broadcaster), the Irish Film Board, and Tyrone Productions, the project includes films, ranging from approximately forty-five seconds to two hours. As each of them was assigned to a different director, Beckett on Film offers a chance to explore how individual viewpoints shape the adaptations. This article analyses how Damien Hirst reinterpreted Beckett’s shortest piece Breath. As it consists solely of an inhalation and exhalation, Breath serves as an example of the object voice, as theorised by Jacques Lacan and Mladen Dolar. In filming Breath, Hirst opts for using medical waste to interpret Beckett’s stage with rubbish framed with a breath.
ISSN:2757-9549