Document Type

Thesis

Publication Date

Spring 2009

Creation Date

2009

Publisher Information

University of South Florida Tampa Library

Keywords

Beckett, Samuel, Joyce, James, Language and languages, Style

Abstract

The act of communication is one contingent upon successful translation. Drawings, gestures, and speech are all approximations used in order to convey ideas and information. For the most part, these methods of communication serve their purpose, but there are certain ‘things’ (for lack of a better word) which cannot be communicated through any conceivable language. Each person has their own unique set of experiences and memories. Each individual mind is unique in how it interprets a word, an action, a color, a smell, etc. If a hundred people hear the word ‘dog,’ each one will envision a different image in their mind. Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello suggests this concept via the Father in his acclaimed Six Characters in Search of an Author: Each one of us has within him a whole world of things, each man of us his own special world. And how can we ever come to an understanding if I put in the words I utter the sense and value of things as I see them; while you who listen to me must inevitably translate them according to the conception of things each one of you has within himself. We think we understand each other, but we never really do. (927)

Physical Information

1 online resource (64 p.)

Comments

Includes bibliographical reference

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