Samuel Beckett and Juan Rodolfo Wilcock: between translation and minor literature

Abstract

This work is focused on the comparison between Samuel Beckett and Juan Rodolfo Wilcock. Even though they have different literary style, the two writers share various aspects; for this reason, this kind of intellectual contact could be considered like an emblem of a literary and aestethic tension, that is the key to understand the centre of their work. Throughout his intellectual experience, Wilcock has been connected many times to Beckett’s literature, for example he translated Poems in English into Italian. The translation subject gives us the opportunity to watch, from a special point of view, the writers work in close relation with the language. The first step is going to be the analysis of a Beckett’s poem, through Wilcock’s translation thanks to his preface. After that, the second step is going to be the comparasion with a Wilcock’s poem translated by himself into Italian; in fact, those verses will be considered other examples of re-writing. Highlighting the linguistic strategy of Beckett, the Argentinian afirms that - even if he seems to accept the failure of human communication - there will be always a communicative aim in his writing. In closing, I’m looking into the idea of “minor literature” developed by Deleuze and Guattari; this idea explains the research of the word, the movement between the languages and the revolutionary feature of those authors, the two presented examples are Not I by Beckett and The engineer (L’ingegnere) by Wilcock.