By
bringing together one of the world's most distinguished philosophers
in Luce Irigaray, with one of the
world's most distinguished novelists in J.M.
Coetzee, and one of the world's leading performance theorists
in Herbert Blau, the public lectures
on Samuel Beckett promise to be a unique event in Australian intellectual
and cultural life.
The
author of twenty books considering sexual difference across the disciplines
of philosophy, literature, linguistics, psychoanalysis, and religious
studies, Luce Irigaray is the
most important feminist philosopher alive. In her recent work, To Be
Two, Irigaray develops a new understanding of the problem of difference
in Western philosophy by refusing to understand 'the other' as a single
concept, but as (depending on our own situation) necessarily either female
or male. In her forthcoming book The Way of Love Irigaray re-examines
the self-understanding of philosophy as love of wisdom to make room for
a definition of love as wisdom. For her public lecture she will deliver
a new work written especially for the occasion via video-link (as she
no longer travels by plane) on 'the path to the other' and the idea of
waiting in the work of both Beckett and J.M. Coetzee.
Two-time
Booker prize winner J.M. Coetzee
wrote his PhD on Beckett and has spoken in the past of the influence of
Beckett on his work and the esteem in which he holds Beckett. Coetzee
will offer a presentation which will not conform to the template of the
standard academic paper. This creative engagement with Beckett by one
of the most distinguished writers currently living promises to shed light
on unexpected aspects of Beckett's influence and ways forward for writing
in his wake.
Professor
Herbert Blau has a long and
distinguished career in theatre studies and as a theatre practitioner.
He co-founded the Actor's Workshop of San Francisco, was co-director of
the Repertory Theatre in New York's Lincoln Center, and served as artistic
director of the experimental group KRAKEN. He has also, over many years,
established himself as one of the foremost performance theorists writing
with numerous books including important works on Beckett, and he will
consider Beckett's legacy in performance in his public lecture.
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Information
about publications and transcripts will be posted here when available.
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