Authorial Presence within the Works of Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane

Abstract

Samuel Beckett and Sarah Kane’s writing constantly raises interpretations surrounding the role of the author. Samuel Beckett’s abstract meanings rarely create one clear identity his work speaks from, and his tight-lipped approach to explaining his writing only increased interest in the man behind it. Sarah Kane’s work has been injected with a sense of martyrdom, as her suicide has framed much of her work in the light of her death. Two such compelling figures can be engaged with theoretically when considering Barthes’ seminal ‘Death of the Author.’ Barthes’ concept of writing itself as being detached from the writer blows apart Kane’s perceived attachment to her work, and Beckett seems to embody this form of writing, becoming literally the “hand, cut off from any voice,” (Barthes, 146). This essay aims to apply the ‘Death of the Author’ to both writers, expanding Kane’s work to exist beyond her own authorship and examining the applied ‘dead author’ within Beckett’s. Barthes’ theory applied in this way reveals both its advantages, and the shortcomings in analyses that arise from removing authorship entirely. This approach to both authors’ works ultimately conceptualises a fluid approach to how authorship may be understood, revealing how an attachment to a specific identity or author may hinder interpretations whilst also acknowledging the way personal, individual elements may enhance them.