Shakespeare in Samuel Beckett’s Library

This article investigates the interplay of absence and presence that characterizes the work of William Shakespeare in the oeuvre of Irish-French author Samuel Beckett. Our purpose is, firstly, to assess how material traces can enrich our understanding of the author’s relationship with Shakespeare as a creative source for his own writing. Secondly, we illustrate that researching authors’ libraries involves a considerable degree of interpretation, even if the use of digital methods creates the misleading positivistic impression that source hunting of this kind will turn the study of how authors reuse external source material into a hard science. We explore a few reading strategies that encompass ancillary archival documents to highlight lacunae in Beckett’s personal library and what these may signify. We proceed with: (1) a brief introduction to the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project and the Beckett Digital Library in the context of genetic criticism and intertextuality; (2) a description of the various books related to Shakespeare in Beckett’s library; (3) Shakespeare in Beckett’s reading and lecture notes; (4) Shakespeare in Beckett’s drafts; and (5) Shakespeare in Beckett’s published letters. As such, the article shows that genetic criticism is directly relevant to bibliography and vice versa.