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Article: 'Watt': logic, insanity, aphasia.
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- September 22, 1996
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Northern Illinois University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The shadow of Holderlin hangs over Samuel Beckett's Watt: the speech of a madman, focus on the Oedipus myth, and direct allusions to the poet. Among the poetry fragments quoted in German in the novel, we find, "von Klippe zu Klippe geworfen/ Endlos in . . . hinab." This is a slight modification of Hyperion's "Song of Fate" (Wie Wasser yon Klippe/ Zu Klippe geworfen/ Jahrlang ins Ungewisse hinab: "Like water flung down/ From cliff to cliff,/ Yearlong into uncertainty"). The poem "Dieppe" that Beckett wrote directly in French in 1937 is strongly influenced by "Der Spaziergang." In addition to its literary appeal, Holderlin's work may have interested Beckett because of the ...