Nobel Prize-winning Irish author Samuel Beckett once said, "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." And yet his words have proven central - necessary even - to the way many have come to experience and understand life in a world seemingly void of transcendent meaning and value. Beginning with his best-known work for the stage, Waiting for Godot, we will explore Beckett's short plays and prose. Along the way, students will write creative and analytical pieces, and at term's end they will stage a festival of "Beckett Shorts," works chosen from the plays we have read during the term.