L'esthétique du silence dans le théâtre de Samuel Beckett

Silence, far more than a mere absence of speech, serves in Samuel Beckett’s work as a scenic device of remarkable expressive power. In the wake of the upheavals caused by the world wars, language seems to have lost its ability to convey human experience. In this context, silence emerges as a radical artistic response, particularly within the theatre of the absurd. Beckett stands out as a central figure in this movement, placing silence at the core of his dramaturgy. Through emblematic works such as Waiting for Godot, Endgame, and Act Without Words, he interrogates the human condition by staging waiting, repetition, emptiness, and the failure of verbal communication. From this perspective, silence is not merely a pause between words, but a dramatic element in its own right, charged with tension and multiple meanings. It draws on a long artistic and philosophical tradition: already present in music, painting, and literature, it is recognized there as a form of expression as eloquent as language itself. Thinkers like Wittgenstein and communication researchers like Mehrabian have highlighted the power of the unspoken and the importance of nonverbal elements in human interaction. In the theatre of the absurd, silence becomes a revealer of the absurdity of existence. Playwrights such as Beckett, Pinter, and Ionesco use it to surface deep tensions through extended pauses, repetitive or trivial actions, and a language emptied of meaning. The body, gestures, and minimalist scenography then take over from speech to express anguish, boredom, or despair. Influenced by silent film and circus arts, Beckett constructs a stage language composed of bodily signs, suspended rhythms, and inhabited silences. His theatre thus presents a humanity confronted with incommunicability, the passage of time, and purposeless waiting. Characters speak, yes, but say nothing; or they fall silent, and it is then that silence becomes the true bearer of meaning. This aesthetic of emptiness is not static: Beckett himself, through his self-translations, constantly redefines the place of silence in his texts, each version becoming an act of creative reinvention. This silence extends and transforms in contemporary stage productions, choreographic or musical adaptations, and even audiovisual works. Artists like Dominique Dupuy, György Kurtág, or Tsirihaka Harrivel appropriate Beckettian silences to explore their gestural, musical, or visual potential. Filmmakers, for their part, use cinematic techniques such as close-ups or slow editing to intensify the emotional impact of silence. This is not a simple theatrical device: silence in Beckett becomes a language of the unspeakable, a poetic and philosophical tool that questions the fragility of human existence, the failure of language, and the search for meaning in a disoriented world.

Author dc:creator

• Solé, Alexis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Ramos Gay, Ignacio

• Samuel Beckett

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

fr

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10550/110192

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:roderic.uv.es:10550/110192