“Der Mench [sic] ist ein Gewohnheitstier”: Beckett and Habit

Habit plays an ambiguous role in Samuel Beckett's oeuvre: on the one hand, as Beckett claims in his essay Proust, habit is merely considered as “the guarantee of a dull inviolability”, a protective screen dividing the subject from reality; on the other hand habit, as the area of friction between activity and passivity, is the object of extensive meditation and a pivotal element in the representation of Beckett's characters. In this paper I intend to investigate this ambiguity in the light of Félix Ravaisson's and Maine de Biran's philosophical reflection on the theme of habit and through a reading of the short story All Strange Away