Manual
This is the Manual as it was published on 01/09/2013. The document has
since been updated for the publication of the third module: Krapp's Last Tape / La
Dernière Bande (November 2015). Click here to go back to
the updated version..
This manual is organized according to the items in the main menu of the
first module of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project, the electronic edition of Stirrings Still / Soubresauts. Features in this manual not applied in
L'Innommable / The Unnamable have a grey background.

1. Documents
In the menu, the heading 'documents' contains the following options:
- a catalogue: a survey (and short description) of the documents (each MS number is clickable and linked to the corresponding transcript);
- a pageflip reconstruction of notebooks (MS 2934 for Stirrings Still / Soubresauts and MS 3316/1 for Comment dire / what is the word).
- facsimiles: scanned images of the documents;
- topographic transcriptions: a graphic representation of the documents (respecting the layout of the pages);
- linear transcriptions: a textual representation of the documents (always linked to the relevant facsimile by means of a thumbnail);
- image / text feature: a combination of the facsimile of a page and its linear transcription, by means of clickable zones on the image. The main text is segmented into zones of no more than 8 lines. Doodles, marginal additions, dates, titles and metamarks are also individually clickable.
2. Chronology
The intricate composition process of the work is charted in a genetic
map. The transcriptions of the documents can be accessed by clicking on the
corresponding archive numbers. Although the catalogue numbers reflect the chronology of
versions,[1] some documents (in
Stirrings Still / Soubresauts notably the 'Super Conquérant' Notebook,
UoR MS 2934) contain more than one version of a particular passage. The versions in this
document are not successive, since Beckett made alternate use of this notebook and loose
sheets of paper. In the case of Beckett's penultimate text, the writing of the three
sections that eventually became Stirrings Still (sections 1, 2, and 3) was
preceded by three abandoned sections. To distinguish them, the abandoned sections are
identified by a zero preceding the number ('before Stirrings Still', sections 01,
02, and 03).
In other modules (for instance L'Innommable / The Unnamable)
the chronology is more straightforward and is visualized in the Genetic Map.
3. Compare versions
The versions of those parts of the genesis that made it into the base
text can be arranged in chronological order and compared in three different sizes, as
the example of Stirrings Still illustrates: Large (the section); Medium (the
paragraph); Small (the sentence).
3.1. Sentences/Segments (Small)
All the versions of each sentence or segment can be presented in
vertical juxtaposition, starting from any version of the text: each sentence or
segment that made it into the base text is preceded by an icon (a grey bullet in
Stirrings Still / Soubresauts and Comment dire / what is the word)
or a sentence number (in L'Innommable / The Unnamable); by clicking on the
icon or number preceding a particular sentence or segment its composition history
can be viewed in vertical juxtaposition. If a document only contains sentences that
did not make it into the base text, this is made explicit at the top of the page.

Every version is preceded by two buttons. Two versions can be
compared in parallel presentation by means of the buttons corresponding to the texts
of your choice: the left-hand button will place the corresponding text in a
left-hand frame, the right-hand button in the right-hand frame.
By choosing e.g. the left button next to the first version, and
the right button next to the last version the textual evolution of this one sentence
can be viewed at a glance by clicking on the 'parallel version comparison' button at
the bottom of the page (which will show both versions in parallel presentation).
In the box under "Synoptic Sentence View" the last line reads:
"To compare all English versions of this sentence with CollateX, click here." This
link lets the third party software program "CollateX" perform a collation of all
versions.[2] The result is a
table in which the versions are aligned and the variation highlighted.
In Stirrings Still, the first module, the CollateX
integration was rather basic, but in L'Innommable CollateX is fully embedded
within the edition, allowing users to compare both English and French versions, to
determine which versions they wish to compare and go to the relevant scanned page of
any version.
(only applied in Stirrings
Still/Soubresauts and Comment dire/ what is the word)
3.2. Paragraphs (Medium)
For the synoptic paragraph view, a similar procedure can
be followed, starting from any version of the text: each paragraph is
preceded by an icon (a grey bullet); by clicking on the icon preceding a
particular paragraph, its complete composition history can be viewed.
(only applied in Stirrings
Still/Soubresauts and Comment dire/ what is the word)
4. Language
This option facilitates examination of either
(a) all French drafts or
(b) all English drafts exclusively. Some French versions are originally written in French, whereas others are translations.
(c) Early translations can be visualized separately, facing the version on which they are based (in parallel presentation).
(d) Bilingual comparison: this option highlights mismatches between the English and French versions. Translation variants are marked in blue. The absence of a word or phrase vis-à-vis the text in the other language is visualized by means of a vertical bar |.
(a) all French drafts or
(b) all English drafts exclusively. Some French versions are originally written in French, whereas others are translations.
(c) Early translations can be visualized separately, facing the version on which they are based (in parallel presentation).
(d) Bilingual comparison: this option highlights mismatches between the English and French versions. Translation variants are marked in blue. The absence of a word or phrase vis-à-vis the text in the other language is visualized by means of a vertical bar |.
5. Tools
The 'Tools' section in the main menu presents four different
visualizations of the internal composition history of each document:
5.1. Default transcription
This default visualization indicates cancellations with
strike-through; additions in superscript; additions on the facing leaf in
green.
5.2. Place indications
This more detailed visualization explicitly mentions the
place of an addition (e.g. place = supralinear, when a word is added above
the line).
5.5. Metamarks On/Off
The manuscript pages contain a number of features that are
not part of the text itself. These so-called metamarks are introduced by the
author to indicate how the text will have to be pieced together when it is
copied in the next version. For instance, two corresponding instances of the
letter 'A' indicate where an addition is to be inserted.
6. Search
The search engine offers full-text searches of all the
transcriptions and notes. The results appear within the context of the sentence in
which the search string was found, with the search string highlighted. Searches can
also be finetuned to include only occurrences within the two most prominent features
of manuscripts: additions and deletions. The search engine makes use of the eXist
XML retrieval engine (http://exist.sourceforge.net/).
As an extra, a number of potentially interesting searches are
suggested, such as 'intertextual references', 'doodles', 'metamarks' or
'transpositions'. They can be run by selecting them from the dropdown menu under
'Suggested searches'. The search for 'Intertextual references', for instance, calls
up allusions to passages by such authors as Shakespeare and Dante (and corresponding
annotations).
Notes:
[1] Only the chronology
of UoR MSS 2935/3/11, 2935/3/12, 2935/3/10 and 2935/3/9 differs slightly from the order suggested by the
archive numbers.
[2] As part of the
InterEdition Project, CollateX is a Java-based collation software package that can
be used to produce a critical apparatus for digital editions. <https://collatex.net/>
© 2025 Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project
Directors: Dirk Van Hulle and Mark Nixon | Technical realisation: Vincent
Neyt