Article 7: Contesting the Validity of Postmodernism as a Break from Modernism in Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape”
Kelly Laybolt
The early 20th century was full of turmoil and extreme hardships as people endured two World Wars and the Great Depression. These events caused a transition in literary genres from Victorian literature to Modernism especially with plays when playwrights began to focus on the lives of ordinary people and addressed controversial issues within their works. Many people argue that literary styles transitioned into Postmodernism after the Second World War as people increasingly questioned the meaning of life and their existence. Dramas became heavily influenced by these historical events as writers such as Luigi Pirandello and Samuel Beckett gained prominence for the morose and contentious subjects within their works. Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” is widely considered to be a part of the Modernist subgenre because of the controversial and pessimistic themes within his work. Contrastingly, Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” is regarded as a Postmodernist literary work as he questions the existence of a universal truth and includes an irrational thought process throughout the drama. Although these works are widely considered to belong to two different literary subgenres with the former as Modernist and the latter Postmodernist, both dramas include crises of identity and the self, contest the existence of a universal or abstract truth, and include pessimistic themes, but there is a notable difference in the structures of these works: the former has subplots including a beginning, a middle and an end, and the latter structure as a monologue or a dialogue between the past and present. Both Pirandello and Beckett have aspects of Modernism and Postmodernism in the genre of drama. Therefore, based on these two plays, it can be argued that Postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism and not a distinctly separate subgenre.
In both Pirandello’s and Beckett’s dramas, the characters show a crisis of identity as they attempt to discover the purpose of their existence. Pirandello “understood the…significance of the cultural transformations underway” in the early 20th century (Cangiano 176). Arguably, his focus on the crises “of the certainties of thought, of the self, [and] of language” could explain why his literary works became more successful later in his life as Modernism gained popularity. In “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” a non-traditional family consisting of the Father, Mother, Son, Stepdaughter, the Boy and the Little Girl are looking for an author to assist them in telling their story so they can find their purpose for existence. According to the Father, “the author who created us, made us live, did not wish, or simply and materially was not able, to place us in the world of art” (Pirandello 1048). As a result, these characters are lost and adrift because they suffer from a crisis of identity due to their lack of purpose (Pirandello 1048). The unsettling feelings that the six characters emanate throughout the drama as they attempt to find their identities have the key characteristics of Modernist and Postmodernist genres as playwrights strove to break away from traditional forms of writing.
In “Krapp’s Last Tape,” the protagonist, Krapp, struggles with accepting that his life is meaningless as he listens to tapes of himself recorded on his past birthdays. Similar to the six characters in Pirandello’s drama, Beckett’s protagonist also suffers from a crisis of identity as he spends over two decades in a self-imposed solitude “for the sake of his intellectual life, and the writing of his ‘opus magnum’” (Hughes 9). After spooling a new tape, the now elderly Krapp professes his anger at his younger self, referring to him as a “stupid bastard” for ending his last relationship in order to focus on writing his book (Beckett 6). Krapp’s book was a flop as only seventeen copies sold, but eleven of the seventeen copies were sold “at trade price to free circulating libraries” (Beckett 7). Due to the substandard amount of book sales, the protagonist may consider his life to be inefficacious as he experienced no accomplishment for his efforts. Yet, Krapp continues to record and listen to the previous tapes which demonstrates that he has not completely ceased looking for his own existential significance. In Pirandello’s drama, the six characters experience crises of identity as they attempt to discover their purpose. Similarly, after the disappointing number of sales of “opus magnum” Krapp continues to search for his existential purpose in the plethora of tapes he has recorded throughout his lifetime. The crises of identity that are present within both works can be interpreted as aspects of Modernism as “Modernist thinking is about the search of an abstract truth of life” that developed as secularization gained popularity throughout society (Kong).
As Modernism continued after the beginning of World War II, some aspects of the genre experienced a shift and some people could have perceived this as the transition into Postmodernism. As previously mentioned, Modernist writing seeks to find the life’s truths, but after the presumed shift into Postmodernism writers began to believe that “there is no universal truth, abstract or otherwise” (Kong). Pirandello addresses this absence of truth within his drama as his characters attempt to express their story onstage. In order to convince the Director to step in as their author, the Father explains that a director’s role is to create living beings more “alive than those that breathe and wear clothes! Less real, perhaps; but more true” (Pirandello 1047). The Father uses this statement to convince the Director that although he and the rest of his family are characters that were developed in a writer’s mind, they are just as alive as anyone else in the theater (Pirandello 1048). As a result, the validity of truth is contested because fictional characters are generally not thought of as sentient, living beings. Thus, Pirandello’s “focus on the dissolution of the subject and its connection to the world” in this drama culminates in a “universe empty of meaning” (Subialka 76).
Beckett also challenges the veracity of truth in his drama through his Protagonist. As Krapp listens through old tapes of himself it is clear that he undergoes significant personality changes throughout his life. In the tape he recorded on his thirty-ninth birthday, Krapp stated that he was “listening to an old tape… [from] at least ten or twelve years ago” (Beckett 3). While listening to himself in his late twenties, he comments that it is hard “to believe that I was that young whelp” (Beckett 3). According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, a whelp typically refers young boy or girl in the early stages of childhood (Merriam-Webster). This statement marks the first version of Krapp as a younger self that is presented to his audience. The thirty-nine-year-old Krapp views his younger self as a naïve child because of his self-improvement aspirations and the hope he still held that his life was meaningful (Beckett 3). The protagonist’s second personality change occurs while he was thirty-nine. At this point in his life, Krapp has lost some of his earlier optimism as he sneers at “what he calls his youth and thanks to God that it’s over” (Beckett 3). His lost morale also contributes to the ending of his last relationship because despite being on a pleasant date with his significant other, he tells her that their relationship “is hopeless and [it is] no good going on” (Becket 6). Shortly after this conclusion Krapp goes into self-imposed isolation in order to focus on his book. Therefore, despite becoming less optimistic, he still had conviction that his life had purpose. Krapp’s personality changes for a third time during his elderly years. In the present time, Krapp is presented as a disheveled, old kook that has almost completely given up on finding an existential purpose. Elderly Krapp rejects his former beliefs and considers his own vision to be “pretentious nonsense” (Wilson 77). Additionally, his failures have led him to be disgusted by his old ambitions and “for what he has become” (Hughes 5). The protagonist’s transition from a young, hopeful man to a bitter hermit also shows that universal truth does not exist because even one’s own personality can change overtime. Therefore, the existence of universal truth can be contested because people’s personalities can be subject to change as they experience new things and if people do not have a definitive truth, why would anything else? Both of these dramas are also considered to be theatre of the absurd, another literary movement in drama that occurred during the Modernist and Postmodernist eras, due to their focuses on the idea of human helplessness and hopelessness (Kong). Pirandello and Beckett contest the meaning of existential purpose and the existence of a universal or abstract truth within their works Therefore, it can be argued that Postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism as each playwright uses Postmodernist ideologies within their works and both dramas are considered to be part of the theatre of the absurd movement.
Modernist and Postmodernist dramas include many pessimistic themes that were considered improper topics to write about while Victorian literature was the prominent writing style. Postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism because there was little alteration of themes between the two subgenres. They both use “provocative themes and characters,” such as loss, suicide, grief and addiction, to draw “the most immediate hostile reaction[s]” from the audience (Gainor et al. 61). At the beginning of “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” descriptions of each of the six characters are given in order for the director to properly portray these characters, also labeled as “created realities,” with their retrospective emotions (Pirandello 1046). According to Pirandello, “each [character should be] unchangeably fixed in the expression of its own fundamental sentient” and the first clue that loss and grief will be present in the drama is the description of the Mother (1046). The Mother is supposed to project grief and she should have “tears fixed…under her eyes and on her cheeks” (Pirandello 1046). Near the end of the drama, the Little Girl is found drowned in the fountain (Pirandello 1081). As the body of the Little Girl is being discovered a gunshot rings out from behind a group of trees where the Boy is hiding (Pirandello 1081). The successive death and suicide of the Little Girl as well as the Boy deeply affect the Stepdaughter and the Mother as they both become extremely distressed over these horrific discoveries (Pirandello 1081). These themes in Pirandello’s drama “articulate a deep sense of rupture and loss, going so far as to deconstruct traditional [Victorian] forms of representation to express that modern crisis” (Subialka 77). His inclusion of these themes demonstrates that the shift from Victorian literature to Modernism was a fundamental transition that included a significant change to socially accepted themes such as identity crises and life’s uncertainties.
Unlike the transition from Victorian literature to Modernism, the transition to Postmodernism did not include any significant changes to the morose themes that playwrights used in their dramas. Beckett is another author that is considered to “still [be] obsessed with the alienation, vacuity, and decay of life upon a planet devoid of God and hope” (Wilson 79). Some of the unsettling themes that characterize Modernism and Postmodernism can be found within “Krapp’s Last Tape.” According to Hughes, the most important theme in “Krapp’s Last Tape”“is that of lost love, or rather love abandoned” (Hughes 1). The protagonist had two affairs prior to becoming a recluse, both of which ended dismally. The first relationship that Krapp discusses occurred in his late twenties when he was “living on and off with Bianca in Kedar Street” (Beckett 3). There is not a considerable amount of detail given to the reader about this relationship, but Krapp insinuates that there were conflicting emotions between himself and Bianca which created an unstable relationship and living environment because they lived together sporadically. It is evident that the relationship that Krapp had with Bianca affected him negatively as he concludes his thoughts by summing up the relationship as hopeless business (Hughes 3). The theme of the abandonment of love becomes clearer as Krapp describes his second relationship. Despite seemingly no conflict in the brief description of an outing with his nameless lover “Krapp calmly and sadly ends their affair—which will be his last,” by stating again that love is hopeless (Hughes 5). Arguably, it can be determined that Krapp’s negative experiences with his first relationship may have created jaded feelings about love and influenced his decision to go into isolation. Another morose theme found within Beckett’s drama is addiction. Throughout his isolation, Krapp has become an alcoholic and one physical condition that is commonly associated with alcoholism is a red or purple nose. In the description of the protagonist Beckett states that he should be “unkempt, with grey hair and a nose purple from drinking” (Hughes 2). There are also many instances where Beckett insinuates Krapp’s alcoholism through the stage directions in which Krapp “goes with all the speed he can muster backstage into the darkness. Ten seconds. Loud pop of cork. Fifteen seconds” passes as he returns to the desk and tape recorder onstage (Beckett 2). This escapade of corks popping in the stage directions occurs twice more throughout the drama and suggests that Krapp has become a heavy drinker while the purple nose indicates that his heavy drinking habits have been present for a number of years. The controversial and dismal themes that are present in “Six Characters in Search of an Author” as well as “Krapp’s Last Tape” can be considered Modernist as well as Postmodernist as they contest traditionally accepted themes of the previous genre.
There is one notable difference between both dramas that could be considered evidence that Modernism and Postmodernism are separated by more than time period and style. Each drama has a different writing style and structure. “Six Characters in Search of an Author” was first performed in 1921, but the “unsettling plot and characters scandalized [the] traditional audience” (Puchner et al. 1041). The drama was then reshaped by Georges Pitoëff in 1923 to create a more remarkable performance in Paris (Puchner et al. 1041). Pirandello took extreme care when he was writing his drama and was open to changes between 1921 and 1923 to ensure that his work flawlessly expressed the themes he wanted to convey. Additionally, Pirandello’s drama is well structured with the setting, stage directions, character descriptions and character lines clearly laid out in the script. This is a necessity in order to portray the themes correctly and to create some structure to the arguments between the six characters because readers may become lost as these characters constantly interrupt each other in an attempt to explain their individual truths. Dissimilar to Pirandello’s work, Beckett wrote his drama specifically for one actor, Patrick Magee, because the playwright had heard Magee’s unique voice over the radio and felt it would be perfect for his drama (Text und Bühne). This, coupled with Beckett’s minimalistic writing style creates a sporadic and senseless narrative that leaves the audience “with gestures toward metaphysical revelation but denie[s] access to any positive or determinate content” (Wilson 80). The script relies heavily on stage directions and the elderly Krapp hardly speaks until the end of the drama, instead he intently listens to the recording of himself. These writing tactics imitate an irrational thought process which is a key aspect of Postmodernist literature. Although there are some differences between the writing styles of the two playwrights, there is a greater number of similarities between them. Therefore, Postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism with marginal differences to the structures and style of dramas.
Although there is a difference in the structures of “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and “Krapp’s Last Tape,” there are a number of similarities in the themes and content of the two dramas. Pirandello and Beckett include morose themes such as loss, suicide, grief and addiction within their dramas which contrasts the traditional concepts of Victorian literature, which is more sentimental than practical or realistic. Additionally, both playwrights challenge the existence of an abstract or universal truth and their characters experience crises of identity. Therefore, Postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism because the similarities between both dramas greatly outweigh the differences. The early 20th century was a time of great turmoil for humanity due to the impacts of both World Wars and the Great Depression. Although the immense suffering that occurred during this time period was devastating, it inspired a radical shift in literature and provided a genre that continues to be studied by researchers in the current time period.
Works Cited
Anglia Ruskin University. “Dr Sue Wilson.” ARU, 2021, aru.ac.uk/people/sue-wilson.
Beckett, Samuel. “Krapp’s Last Tape.” Taylor and Francis, 2016.
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. “Ricerca Persone.” Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, 2021, www.unive.it/data/persone/24825253/curriculum.
Gainor, J. Ellen, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of Drama, Volume 2: The Nineteenth Century to the Present. Vol. 2, W.W. NORTON & Company, 2009.
Goodman, Nan. “English Language Notes.” Duke University Press – English Language Notes, 2019, www.dukeupress.edu/english-language-notes.
Hughes, Glenn. “Glenn Hughes.” Amazon.com: Glenn Hughes: Books, Biography, Log, Audiobooks, Kindle, Amazon, 2020, www.amazon.ca/Glenn-Hughes/e/B001K84D6S/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1.
Kong, Ying. “Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape’” World Literature, 08 November 2021, University College of the North, Thompson.
Pirandello, Luigi. “Six Characters in Search of an Author.” The Norton Anthology of World Literature (Shorter 4th Ed.) edited by Martin Puchner et al., 4th ed., vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, pp. 1042–1082.
Puchner, Martin, et al., editors. The Norton Anthology of World Literature (Shorter 4th Ed.). 4th ed., vol. 2, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019.
Text und Bühne. “Samuel Beckett- Krapp’s Last Tape (Patrick Magee).” Youtube, uploaded by Text und Bühne, 17 Nov 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otpEwEVFKLc&t=227s
Annotated Bibliography
Cangiano, Mimmo. “Modernism and Rhetoric. Pirandello and Michelstaedter.” Enthymema, no. 19, 2017, pp. 176–194. Ebscohost, eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=2a415dc3-58b7-4cfa-aa47-b83da67bb323%40redis.
Mimmo Cangiano, the author of “Modernism and Rhetoric. Pirandello and Michelstaedter,” is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). He specializes in European Modernisms, far right-wing cultures and Marxism (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). Cangiano has published multiple works since 2011 and has taught at several prominent universities including Harvard University and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). In his article, Cangiano analyzes the criticism Pirandello made regarding “the classical idea of rhetoric” (Cangiano 176). He juxtaposes Carlo Michelstaedter’s and Luigi Pirandello’s contentions with the classical rules of rhetoric to emphasize how different writers express modernist themes. The author’s description of “Science…as the horizon of Truth” shows the movement towards secularization after World War 1 (Cangiano 180). Additionally, Cangiano asserts that people began to question preestablished truths as the “truth [is] now susceptible to change” (180). Therefore, his article will be helpful as I establish the essence of Modernism within my essay.
Hughes, Glenn. “Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Transcendent Reality.” Accessed 11 December 2021, Louisiana State University, https://coldreads.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/krapps-last-tape.pdf.
The author of “Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Transcendent Reality,” Glenn Hughes, is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas (Hughes). Unfortunately, the source of publication for this article is unknown, but Hughes is the author or editor of ten books regarding philosophy and poetry (Hughes). In his article, Hughes explores the portrayal of love’s meaningfulness in “Krapp’s Last Tape” and how this “portrayal might be understood in the context of Beckett’s overall vision and presentation of the human condition” (Hughes). His in-depth analyzation of Beckett’s drama is integral to my research essay. Hughes provides a large amount of detail regarding the structure, themes, and creative use of technology in Beckett’s drama. Therefore, this article is a great asset to my research essay and I used it heavily to support my thoughts and theories.
Subialka, Michael. “Modernism at War: Pirandello and the Crisis of (German) Cultural Identity.” Annali D’Italianistica, vol. 33, 2015, pp. 75–97. Ebscohost, eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=89acd5dc-b1fd-4b8b-a7c2-ac3520806ee4%40redis.
“Modernism at War: Pirandello and the Crisis of (German) Cultural Identity” is an article that was written by Michael Subialka and published by Annali d’Italianistica in 2015. Subialaka is currently an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and an Italian Faculty Advisor at the University of California and prior to teaching at UCDavis, he taught at the University of Oxford (UCDavis). In his article, Subialka reexamines how Pirandello’s experience with World War 1 effected his literary work (Subialka 75). He argues that Pirandello integrated “his pessimistic worldview with a simultaneous commitment to an ethics of interpersonal compassion and a desire for spiritual renewal at a national level” (Subialka 75). Although Subialka does not discuss “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” he provided a plethora of information about Pirandello’s modernist writing style. With the information provided by Subialka I will be able to support my thesis that postmodernism is a continuation of Modernism.
Wilson, Sue. “Versions of the Vision in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape.’.” English Language Notes, vol. 40, no. 3, 2003, pp. 76–82. Ebscohost, eds.s.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=54e6e5b6-0a75-4832-b06b-703649ebf848%40redis.
The Article, “Versions of the Vision in Samuel Beckett’s ‘Krapp’s Last Tape,’” was written by Sue Wilson in 2003 and published by English Language Notes. Wilson joined the Cambridge School of Creative Industries in 2000 as a Lecturer in Drama and specializes in “the plays and prose of Samuel Beckett” (Anglia Ruskin University). The journal her article was published in has been a respected space for criticism and scholarship in literary as well as cultural studies since 1962 (Goodman). Wilson’s article analyzes the double vision between Beckett and Krapp regarding “metaphysical interpretation of the human condition” (Wilson 76). Interestingly, “Krapp’s Last Tape” is also influenced by Beckett’s life and there are “compelling similarities…described in the play” (Wilson 77). Wilson’s article provides some information about Krapp’s transition as he rejects his former self’s beliefs about his purpose in life and described the metaphysical moment in which the audience is teased with resolution to the conflicts within the drama, but the resolution never comes (Wilson 80). Although there is some interesting information within this article, I find it somewhat limited and only want to use it because I appreciate some of her ideas and want to use them as quotes to support my thesis.
Authors’ Bio: Kelly Laybolt is currently enrolled in his third year of the Bachelor of Arts Program at the University College of the North. After finishing his Arts degree, Kelly plans on entering the Education program and after completing his education would like to teach English at the High School level or at the Elementary School level. Kelly is majoring in History and minoring in English which are two of Kelly’s major interests. He appreciates the challenges these subjects have posed as they have significantly contributed to the development of his writing style. In addition to completing his degrees, Kelly would like to further develop his literary skills and assist other students in developing their writing skills as well.
Instructor Remarks: Kelly Laybolt took World Literature, a second-year course in UCN, through remote learning. Most of the course materials are posted online. As a seminar course, students and the instructor met twice a week through Virtual Classroom to discuss the required readings. Kelly was fully prepared for the discussion. While his engagement in learning encouraged instructor and his peers, his insights to the required reading have also helped his peers and the instructor to better understand literature. The comparative essay Luigi Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author” and Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” will help his peers in writing analytical essays on the drama genre—Dr. Ying Kong.