"Pidgin bullskrit": The performance of French in Beckett's trilogy

The theatre, by including non-linguistic forms of expression, plays an extremely significant part in Beckett's aim to bring disrepute upon language and to turn away from representational aesthetic aims. Before he began to explore dramatic forms of expression, however, Beckett's use of language was already 'dramatic' in a linguistic sense: it manifested high levels of performativity. This article will examine the increasingly performative language of the Trilogy in relation to Beckett's use of a foreign language and demonstrate that the textually dramatic function of Beckett's language is directly related to his deliberate estrangement from language.