"This is the first comprehensive study of Noble Laureate Samuel Beckett's innovative work for the screen. Samuel Beckett's Plays on Film and Television provides meticulous analysis of every play Beckett wrote, directed, or adapted for the screen. Herren studies Beckett's use of "memory machines"--Technological media for channeling personal, cultural, philosophical, and artistic ghosts. Having conjured these ghosts, Beckett "decomposes" them in order to compose them for distinctly innovative use. Herren traces this countraditional approach to tradition as Beckett's signature style for film and television. The book concludes with a consideration of the Beckett on Film project, where Herren defends the vital need for creative freedom, in future productions of Beckett's plays."--Jacket.