Samuel Beckett spent two years living in London while writing what would become his first published novel, Murphy (1938), which is set in the capital.

This talk from Garin Dowd will explore the interrelated questions of dwelling, territory and place as these feature within this frenetic novel of displacement and dislocation. Drawing on letters written by Beckett during his London sojourn (1934-35), and on the theoretical resources of a range of thinkers of urban space and of spatiality itself, the talk gestures towards Dowd’s current larger project on Beckett, by proposing that Murphy can be considered as an idiosyncratic, multi-layered and distinctly cartographic exploration of the changing metropolis between the wars.

Garin Dowd is Professor of Film, Literature and Media at the University of West London, where he currently leads the BA English courses. His research interests lie in the intersections of literature and cinema with philosophy and, in particular, with the work of post-war French philosophers.