The other night : dreaming, writing, and restlessness in twentieth-century literature

"I sleep, but my heart wakes," says the Song of Songs. "The other night" names the sleepless night we spend in dreams. From The Interpretation of Dreams to Finnegans Wake , many of the great writing projects of the first half of the twentieth century articulate experiences of waking in the very depths of sleep, where no "I" can declare itself present though the heart still beats. After World War II, in the cold light of the closure of the age of dreambooks, Beckett and Blanchot discover with new clarity, and new fatigue, that what wakes when the "I" sleeps doesn't sleep when the "I" wakes. Revisiting Freud's argument that the dream is a form of writing, The Other Night looks at how life becomes literature in this wakefulness. Though we seem to be seeing things in our dreams, we are actually confronted with a kind of writing. This writing is not in our power, and yet it is ours. We are responsible for it in the same strange way that we are responsible for our lives. "From The Interpretation of Dreams to Finnegans Wake, many of the great writing projects of the first half of the twentieth century articulate experiences of waking in the very depths of sleep, where no "I" can declare itself present though the heart still beats. After World War II, in the cold light of the closure of the age of dreambooks, Beckett and Blanchot discover with new clarity, and new fatigue, that what wakes when the "I" sleeps doesn't sleep when the "I" wakes." "Revisiting Freud's argument that the dream is a form of writing, The Other Night looks at how life becomes literature in this wakefulness. Though we seem to be seeing things in our dreams, we are actually confronted with a kind of writing. This writing is not in our power, and yet it is ours. We are responsible for it in the same strange way that we are responsible for our lives."--Jacket Contents......Page 7 Acknowledgments......Page 9 Introduction:The Other Night......Page 13 The Dream as Writing: Freud’s Theory......Page 35 Dream and Writing in Blanchot......Page 60 Beckett’s Restlessness......Page 81 Finnegans Wake......Page 101 Afterword:The Dream and Writing of Socrates......Page 121 Notes......Page 131 Selected bibliography......Page 151 Index......Page 161 Contents 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: The Other Night 13 The Dream as Writing: Freud’s Theory 35 Dream and Writing in Blanchot 60 Beckett’s Restlessness 81 Finnegans Wake 101 Afterword: The Dream and Writing of Socrates 121 Notes 131 Selected bibliography 151 Index 161 The Dream As Writing: Freud's Theory -- Dream And Writing In Blanchot -- Beckett's Restlessness -- Finnegans Wake -- Afterword: The Dream And Writing Of Socrates. Herschel Farbman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 139-148) And Index.