Infiltraciones de lo poético en la trilogía Whitelaw: Not I, Footfalls y Rockaby

Abstract

In the Whitelaw Trilogy, composed of the works Not I, Footfalls and Rockaby, various lyrical manifestations that infiltrate the textualities can be identified. These works, dedicated to female voices and honoring actress Billie Whitelaw, show the genesis of the texts through research into drafts and initial versions available at Beckett Achieves in Reading. The self-translation solutions used by Beckett, who originally wrote the texts in English and then translated them into French, are analyzed. The differences in the textuality of the three minidramas reveal possible references to modern traditions and currents, from the Horatian epode to the poetic prose of Octavio Paz, passing through the pages of Mallarmé, the surrealist free verse and the sound prose of Louis Ferdinand Celine. The transversality of genres and hybridizations are accentuated in the final texts, definitively sealing the presence of poetry throughout Beckett's work, although this facet is less known in his role as a poet.