‘Something to Do with Dust’: The Kantian ‘Block’ in That Time

The purpose of this article is to discuss how the issue of the Kantian ‘block’, as described by Theodor Adorno in his 1959 lectures on The Critique of Pure Reason, can help us understand Samuel Beckett’s depiction of the subject. Kant understood metaphysics as the science of limitation. In sense his philosophy is more agreeable with Beckett’s work than it may appear. It is this overlooked aspect of Kant’s philosophy that Adorno brings to the forefront and this essay is designed to illustrate how doing so numbers among Adorno’s other invaluable contributions to the study of Beckett’s works.