THE OBIDIL AND THE MAN OF GLASS: Denarration, Genesis and Cognition in Beckett’s Molloy, Malone meurt / Malone Dies and L’Innommable / The Unnamable

The research hypothesis of this essay is that Beckett's practice of "denarration" (Richardson 2001) is not only relevant to narratology, but also has a genetic and a cognitive dimension. The manuscripts of Molloy, Malone meurt and L'Innommable are examined to show how both the synchronie and the diachronic structures of these texts play a role in Beckett's inquiry into the human mind and how the techniques of dis- and denarration are deployed to challenge old models of the mind and intimate more recent cognitive theories that consider the mechanics of the mind in terms of narrative intelligence.