As we “wait for Godot” during this surreal epoch worthy of countless adjectives, I decided to explore and review the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project.
The site: https://www.beckettarchive.org/
For those not familiar with Beckett’s work, in short, he was an Irish-born writer whose works examined the strain the human condition bore on the shoulders of modern society.
Launched in 2011, the SBDMP consists of two parts, a “digital archive of Samuel Beckett’s manuscripts, organized in 26 research modules” and “a series of 26 volumes, analyzing the genesis of the texts contained in the corresponding modules.” The Series Preface is exciting, in that it promises various ways in which to approach the life and work of Samuel Beckett, including the ability to compare the interrelatedness of different manuscripts from different holding libraries. The latter is impressive to think about when compared to making such an attempt even thirty years ago, an attempt which would’ve been undergirded by correspondences via phone or mail. From a structural standpoint, the site is sparse and minimal, bringing to mind an empty stage from which actors and writers can engage in Theatre of the Absurd.
My initial inclination was, of course, to read the project’s stated goal, which is to “…reunite the manuscripts of Samuel Beckett’s work in a digital way, and to facilitate genetic research…” For someone as prolific as Beckett, whose works include plays, poems, prose, radio, and film, the mere undertaking of such a collaborative project is a welcomed undertaking for researchers in the humanities.
Beyond the swath Beckett covered, as a man who lived and worked through most of the 20th Century, he maintained a wide roster of influences, friends, and contemporaries. The Beckett Digital Library, understanding this, offers a digital reconstruction of Beckett’s library as it appeared in his Paris apartment. The BDL currently offers “762 extant volumes, as well as 247 virtual entries for which no physical copy has been retrieved.” Included within the SMBDP’s “free features” is a sample of the BDL, which contains a selection of 25 of these books (one for every letter of the alphabet except, suspiciously enough, “x”). As we’ve learned throughout much of the semester, especially via the story of Sojourner Truth, the handling of one’s image is crucial. The existence of the BDL allows for researchers and fans of Beckett to construct his milieu via this expansive collection. Not only would one be able to view works he was engaging with (Kant, Isherwood, Molière, Joyce, etc.), but one can also view the inscriptions and annotations living within these books. The ability with which to be able to view inscriptions and annotations would prove a valuable resource to any researcher working on a biographer of a Beckett and students curious as to what Beckett’s analytical process looked like. Of particular enjoyment (for me, at least) were an inscription found within Theodor Adorno’s Noten zur Literatur, in which the famed critical theorist casually writes, “Für Samuel Beckett,” the front copy of Molière’s Théâtre Complet, Vol. 2 missing, and a sole page (395) have been folded down in Dante Alighieri’s La Divine Comédie. The BDL, along with the SBDMP as a whole, is also beneficial in that it preserves the integrity of physical copies by allowing researchers access to digital facsimiles.
While I am not yet familiar with many digital archives and their features, the SMDMP continues to impress by its allowing for a meta-study via a News and Updates page which functions as a timeline of add-ons and awards garnered since its launch nearly a decade ago.
The SMDMP contains a litany of information, but it does not come without issues. Firstly, though several wealthy organizations backed the creation and subsequent sustaining of this digital archive (the European Council for Research and the University of Texas being two of them), it is not free. There are both individual and institutional fees one must pay for full access to the archives. One, like myself, finds this out in an almost rude way, as the page one is scrolling on times out and reverts you back to the homepage. In the past, I may have avoided mentioning the financial obstacles, seeing as how they (seemingly) aren’t too steep and I’m a member of an institution that may grant me access. However, this isn’t the past, as I write within the crisis wrought upon by the rapid spread of Covid-19. Several organizations understand this, as JSTOR has allowed “access to all unlicensed collections at no cost,” “more than 25,000 books available at no charge,” and, most importantly, “26 journal archives in Public Health free through June 30, 2020.” The SMDMP’s News and Updates page does not mention anything related to Covid-19, as the latest press release was in reference to an award (MLA Prize for Bibliography, Archive, or Digital Project) from November 2018. Perhaps the curator in me saw an opportunity to reference our current crisis via the lens of Beckett.
