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April 13, 2019

Writing the Twentieth Century

Poets, philosophers, and playwrights.

This week marks the deaths and births of some of the most important poets, playwrights, and philosophers of the twentieth century: Primo Levi (d. April 11, 1987), Samuel Beckett (b. April 13, 1906), Seamus Heaney (b. April 13, 1939), and Jean-Paul Sartre (April 15, 1980).

Their works chronicle events such as the Holocaust and Bloody Sunday; tackle dread about life’s absurdity; and sit at the apex in which modernism became post-. Our archive is full of essays about these important figures, but we are also lucky to feature some pieces written by them for Boston Review. We hope you enjoy!

Diego Gambetta

Primo Levi’s Last Moments

“On that tragic Saturday only his body was smashed.”
  • June 1, 1999
Roger Boylan

Samuel Beckett, the Early Years

A lost story shows the young writer struggling in Joyce's shadow

  • July 8, 2014
Ronald Aronson

The Philosophy of Our Time

Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential Marxism offers a radical philosophical foundation for today’s revitalized critiques of capitalism.

  • November 14, 2018
Seamus Heaney

Influences

Seamus Heaney on the power of T.S. Eliot

  • October 3, 1989
Poetry
Primo Levi

Agave

A poem by Primo Levi
  • October 23, 2015
Roger Boylan

Desperately Seeking Sam

Remembering Beckett twenty years after his death.

  • November 19, 2009

Our weekly themed Reading Lists compile the best of Boston Review’s archive. Sign up for our newsletters to get them straight to your inbox before they appear online.

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