"To be or not to be is not the question: Beckett’s Film"

Presented by

Simon Critchley

Professor of Philosophy
The New School for Social Research,
New York


Samuel Beckett wrote just once for the cinema, a film oddly called Film.
Critchley will try to work out what Film might mean or not mean. Along
the way, he will discuss what Beckett might teach us about the nature of
perception, self-perception and the self. Far from being depressive or
nihilistic, Beckett's work, argues Critchley, reveals a realistic ethic
of courage and human endurance.

Simon Critchley is the author of many books, most recently Infinitely
Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (Verso, 2007).
The Book of Dead Philosophers is forthcoming from Vintage at the end of the year.

Sponsored by
The Wittreich Family Lecture Fund
with additional assistance from

The Department of English
The Department of Philosophy
The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society
The Liberal Studies Project