Memoria Praeteritorum Bonorum. Nostalgia, memory and indentity in Samuel Beckett's Murphy and Happy Days

Abstract

[eng] Nostalgia is a human feeling that entails the mental recollection of past times that are perceived as superior to the difficult present. The nostalgic experience usually occurs during a period of instability regarding the subject’s interpretation of the world and himself/herself. European Modernism, with its drastic and rapid changes, signified thus a perfect moment for the intensification of nostalgic longing. This feeling is, indeed, widely present in the literature of the period. The aim of this paper is to address the nostalgic impulse in Samuel Beckett’s novel Murphy (1938) and in his play Happy Days (1961). In contrast to the more general term “memory”, Beckett’s works have not been examined through the concept of nostalgia. Drawing on Fred Davis’ sociology of nostalgia and Stuart Hall’s conceptualisation of identity, this paper seeks to demonstrate that nostalgia plays an important role in Murphy’s and Winnie’s construction of identity. In particular, this paper shows how Beckett’s works stage the contradictions of the human condition: Murphy rejects his past life in order to interrupt the continuity in his identity, while Winnie clings to her nostalgic remembrances to alleviate suffering resulting from her physical entombment. Finally, Murphy illustrates that it is impossible to completely abandon the past, while Happy Days shows how Winnie’s lack of external realisation is an obstacle to an ordered and continuous passage of time.