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This article investigates structural and performative mechanisms through which language operates as a technology of absence in three canonical plays by Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958). The approach is a qualitative library-based methodology, which is oriented toclose reading and theoretical interpretation. Situating each play within a unified Derridean analytical framework, the article follows a developmental path: the dialogic instability produced in Waiting for Godot through iterative deferral, the limited linguistic exhaustion and mechanical ritualism of Endgame, and the technological literalization of trace and supplementarity in Krapp’s Last Tape. The paper identifies a significant gap in existing Beckett scholarship: whereas critics have extensively noted the effect of absence in these plays, few studies have methodically explored the precise mechanisms through which this effect is produced.
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عكاب et al. (2026) studied this question.
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