Spatio-geographical abstraction in Samuel Beckett’s Not I/Pas moi

Samuel Beckett’s drafts often depart from a concrete depiction, which is then gradually compacted. A peculiar example is the textual development of Beckett’s play Not I/Pas moi. The recognisable Irish setting of the early ‘Kilcool’ manuscripts is cut back as the writing process evolves. The French translation removes all Irish references, yielding a spatially self-enclosed text. Besides a linguistic motivation, another important reason for the omission seems to reside in the more impersonal and archetypal approach Beckett adopted towards his protagonist (Mouth/Bouche). The purpose of this paper is to show that Pas moi offers a continuation of the writing process rather than a repetition of the written product and that the spatio-geographical aspect of the text is used to implement changes in Beckett’s artistic conception.