“Another heavenly day”: Absurdo, Metaficção, Paródia e Ironia em Happy Days (1961), de Samuel Beckett

• Ano de defesa: 2016
• Autor(a) principal: Pantaleão, Débora Gil
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Federal da Paraíba; Brasil; Letras; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras; UFPB
• Palavras-chave em Português: Samuel Beckett; Happy Days; Absurdo; Metaficção; Paródia; Ironia; Absurd; Metafiction; Parody; Irony; CNPQ::LINGUISTICA, LETRAS E ARTES::LETRAS
• Link de acesso: https://repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/123456789/11672

Happy Days (1961), a play of one of the most acclaimed writers of the twentieth century, Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), has been investigated by literary criticism in recent decades from numerous perspectives. Among these trends, some have claimed that the play deals with themes such as life and death; the last humans on earth; some have moved toward a more psychoanalytical approach; or have ensured that the play is inexplicable. However, we believe that some of these speculations regarding Beckett’s play may actually be linked. Thus, this thesis is intended to promote an interpretation of the play Happy Days from a reflection on the concept of the absurd, headlined by Esslin from Camus, also considering the theories of Nietzsche's nihilism and Sartrean existentialism as well as the subcategories metafiction, parody and irony, using these concepts to ensure our research regarding both the form and the contents of Beckett's work. The play has two acts and only two characters - Winnie and Willie, her husband. In the first act, Winnie is buried up to her waist and has the company of a black shopping bag which keeps some utensils, including: a mirror, a revolver, a toothpaste and a toothbrush. In the second act, the character is buried up to the neck and in front of her, Brownie, a revolver, makes her company. On the other hand, the character Willie appears in a few moments and hardly participates verbally in the scene. He is most of the time behind the mound where Winnie is buried, and therefore rarely visible to the public eyes. Starting from a theological perspective, Winnie lives waiting for a life after death, though sometimes nihilism seems to have already infected her world view, as in one moment the character is projecting her ideal world, and in another doubting its existence. So we see a Winnie stuck to her limited actions and meaningless routine, not enjoying what for Nietzsche was the only world there is, the world we live in. The boredom that the characters live is also impregnated by the hyper illuminated setting, which does not change, and it is described by Beckett as a "blinding light," and that causes the audience, the feeling of being always living at noon. The torturous eternity, paradoxically, leads to human finitude, to nothing, in the guise of stories told by Winnie and her lines, sometimes meaningless, that fill the present time.