Pop Beckett

Book excerpt: When Samuel Beckett's work first appeared, it was routinely described, by Adorno among others, as a clear example of European high culture. However, this judgement ignored an aspect of Beckett's work and its reception that is, arguably, not yet fully understood; the intimate relation between his work and popular culture. Beckett used popular cultural forms; but popular culture has also found a place both for the work and for the man. This collection of essays examines how popular cultural forms and media are woven into the fabric of Beckett's works and how Beckett continues to have far-reaching impact on popular culture today in a host of different forms, in film and on television, from comics to meme culture, tourism to marketing.