Approaches to the (Beckett) archives : Popper, Coetzee, and scientific validity

This paper concerns the nature of the archive and the kinds of statements that might be drawn from our interaction with the archive (by which I mean manuscript material and other primary source material, such as notes and correspondence, related to the process of composition of Samuel Beckett'sworks). It has two parts. The first concerns the concept of 'falsifiability' drawn from Karl Popper that has been applied in recent years to literary criticism and considers its viability in relation to particular methods. The second considers J. M. Coetzee's PhD thesis and his research into the manuscripts of Watt, considering the light it sheds into the value of scientism in literary studies.