(In)voluntary memory and archive fever in Proust and Beckett

Abstract

We seek in this article a comparison between Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and Samuel Beckett’s Krapp's Last Tape. In Beckett’s piece the procedure is to show a trialogue between three Krapps of different ages, emphasizing his own estrangement. From the notion of “archive fever” Derrida, we seek to approximate archiving strategies involved in both works. In Proust, archiving emphasizes the amorous conquests and games of seduction between people of very different social classes. From this comes the great tragedy of the play: the suicide of Albertine. Krapp uses coils to archive his own impressions and judgments on facts that are barely mentioned generating a growing otherness with himself. Does play Beckett’s work a parody with the Recherche?