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Cultural Politics and the Irish Theatre: Samuel Beckett and the New Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Gordon Armstrong
Gordon Armstrong
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of Theatre Arts, University of Rhode Island.
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Extract

Lawrence Stone, Princeton Professor Emeritus of History, has recently declared that ‘every cultural enterprise, even science, is at least in part a social construction’. Biologist Jay Gould vehemently agrees. ‘Science’, says Gould, ‘is done by individuals, whose conclusions are influenced by the beliefs they bring with them.’ The contamination factor is unavoidable. On the other hand, Erwin Schrodinger, the renowned quantum physicist, brought to biology experimental truths that may take us to the edge of the universe. For him, the contamination factor was intentional. Beginning in the 1940s, his work had a direct effect on the writings of Samuel Beckett.

Type
Articles
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1993 , pp. 215 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1993

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References

Notes

1. Stone, Lawrence, ‘The Revolution Over the Revolution’, New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 11, 06 11, 1992, p. 47.Google Scholar

2. Smith, John Maynard, ‘Taking a Chance on Evolution’, New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 9, 05 14, 1992, p. 34.Google Scholar

3. Knowlson, James, catalogue: Samuel Beckett: An Exhibition, exhibition: Reading University Library, 05–07 1971. London: Turret Books, 1971, p. 52.Google Scholar

4. Lewontin, R. C., ‘The Dream of the Human Genome’, The New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 10 (05 28, 1992), p. 31.Google Scholar

5. Schrodinger, Erwin, What Is Life! The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944, repr. 1955).Google Scholar

6. Damasio, Antonio R. and Damasio, Hanna, ‘Brain and Language’, Mind and Brain, Scientific American, 09, 1992, p. 89.Google Scholar

7. Smith, John Maynard, ‘Taking a Chance on Evolution’, New York Review of Books, Vol. XXXIX, No. 9, 05 14, 1992, p. 34.Google Scholar

8. Wheeler, John A., cited by Horgan, John, ‘Quantum Philosophy’, Scientific American, 07 1992, p. 101.Google Scholar

9. Beckett, Samuel, Imagination Dead Imagine, London: Calder and Boyars, 1965, p. 10.Google Scholar

10. Beckett, , Imagination, p. 11.Google Scholar

11. Schrodinger, , Life, p. 51.Google Scholar

12. Schrodinger, , Life, pp. 69–70.Google Scholar

13. Schrodinger, , Life, p. 72.Google Scholar

14. Beckett, Samuel, Endgame, New York: Grove Press, 1958, p. 1.Google Scholar

15. Schrodinger, , Life, p. 91.Google Scholar

16. Lewontin, , ‘Genome’, p. 33.Google Scholar

17. Lewontin, , ‘Genome’, p. 32–33.Google Scholar

18. Lewontin, , ‘Genome’, p. 32.Google Scholar

19. Schrodinger, , Life, pp. 91–2.Google Scholar

20. Schrodinger, , Life, p. 31.Google Scholar

21. Schrodinger, , Life, p. 92.Google Scholar

22. Armstrong, Gordon, ‘Unintentional Fallacies’, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Fall 1992, Vol VII, No 2, pp. 7–27.Google Scholar

23. See the popular science development of this idea in Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene. OxfordUniversity Press, 1976, 1989.Google Scholar