Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-tn8tq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T08:25:01.978Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

Steven Connor
Affiliation:
Birkbeck College, University of London
Get access

Summary

“Finished, it's finished, nearly finished, it must be nearly finished,” Clov promises himself at the beginning of Beckett's Endgame. Surely, the first thing to be said about postmodernism, at this hour, after three decades of furious business and ringing tills, is that it must be nearly at an end. But in chess, from which Beckett's play takes its title, the endgame is not the end of the game, but the game of ending that forms part of it and may be looked towards from the beginning. Playing the game may become identical with playing the game out. There are strategies for managing the end of the game, including ways of deferring that ending, which come not after the game but in the thick of it. One is compelled to begin almost any synoptic account of postmodernism with such sunset thoughts, even as, in the very midst of one's good riddance, one senses that the sweet sorrow of taking leave of postmodernism may be prolonged for some time yet.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Steven Connor, Birkbeck College, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521640520.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Steven Connor, Birkbeck College, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521640520.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by Steven Connor, Birkbeck College, University of London
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521640520.001
Available formats
×