Oldal 29 [29]
OCR
TERESA ROSELL NICOLÁS influence on Beckett, especially the function of memory. In Krapps Last Tape, Beckett presents a new type of container of memory through the use of new technology: the tape recorder. In Proust, Beckett characterizes the relationship between the individual subject and his past in the following terms: "Ihe individual is the seat of a constant process of decantation, decantation from the vessel containing the fluid of future time, sluggish, pale and monochrome, to the vessel containing the fluid of past time, agitated and multi-colored by the phenomena of its hours.” It is important to remark the past as “colorful,” given the monochromatic effect that Beckett uses in Krapp’s Last Tape. The Irish author, following Proust, distinguishes between voluntary memory, remembered in black and white, and involuntary memory, that “conjures in all the relief and color” the “essential significance” of the past.” Chris Ackerley considers that the metaphor of the vessel as repository of memory manifests itself in Beckett’s oeuvre: Molloy refers to ‘that sealed jar’ to which he owes his being so well preserved; the Unnamable [the character], in the French original, equally imagines himself as ‘entouré, dans un capharnaiim.’ That novel, in either language, is dominated by the unforgettable image of the once ‘great traveller’ planted in his pot [...]. Nagg and Nell in Endgame are ‘bottled’ in their bins; and the three participants in Play each speak from an urn, in which their bodies and their memories are trapped.” The spools in Krapp’s Last Tape are tools to access Krapp’s past. These spools are numbered and catalogued, so that he can have access to them whenever he wants to recover those “items” that are recorded and properly titled as if they were files. Krapp is obsessed with order and also with the fantasy that dominates his life, that he has full control over it. He is able to go back to his past and manipulate it with the use of the tape that goes backwards and forwards. He has his life in his hands. The voices of the younger Krapp — that create a succession of Krapps, following Proust — are recorded and reflect objectively Krapp’s past. However, these are nothing more than looking at an album of black and white photographs. Habit in Krapp has been rigorously kept for the last thirty years, from the moment he decided to abandon love* and devote his life to art and writing, 40 Ibid., 4-5. s Ackerley: The Past in Monochrome: (In)voluntary Memory in Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, in D. Guardamagna - R. M. Sebellin (eds.): The Tragic Comedy of Samuel Beckett. “Beckett in Rome” 17-19 April 2008, Universita degli Studi di Roma «Tor Vergata» Gius, Laterza & Figgie, 2009, 279. *2 Ibid., 280. 33 Krapp seems to have given up on his desire for love, even though bananas seem to work as a replacement. + 28 +
