Beckett was notoriously skittish about philosophical approaches to his work, and this reticence has naturally made him even more adorable to philosophers of all stripes. This course will be exploring the fraught relationship between Beckett and philosophy, trying to think about what might be at stake in his recalcitrance. We’ll be reading a variety of Beckett’s works, from his early poetry and fiction to his late experimental texts — the stories; the poetry; the novels; the stage plays and "dramaticules"; the work in radio, film, and television; and the unclassifiable remainder — paying particular attention to the ways in which his writing puts pressure on the concepts of genre, medium, language, translation, history, and politics. We'll also be considering some of Beckett's philosophical interlocutors, including Bataille, Blanchot, Lukacs, Adorno, Kristeva, Badiou, Cixous, and Deleuze.