Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) is an Irish novelist, poet, playwright, and the largest and most consistent representative of 20th-century modernism. Beckett considered himself a student and follower of James Joyce and himself had a huge influence on modern literature - the very fact of his work called into question the simplistic - rationalistic, “narrative” idea of literature. It was as a discoverer of the new expressive possibilities of language that Beckett received the Nobel Prize in 1969, at the height of his fame.