Esse? Percipi? Referentiality and Subjectivity in Footfalls

This article analyzes how, in Footfalls, Beckett erodes subjective certainty as well as bodily evidence by calling into question the stability of referential mechanisms. Focusing on proper names and analyzing closely how they articulate (or rather disarticulate) personal pronouns and bodily referents, it shows how their unhinging produces a de-stabilization of reality, which has the paradoxical effect of calling into question the subjective unity and permanence of the body present on stage. This article follows the various movements of this short play to trace series of shifts and glitches in the pragmatics of enunciation, and shows how these glitches call into question the identity of the enunciating ‘I’ as well as the reality of its links to the body that it refers to.