This volume of the BDMP analyses the genesis of Beckett’s play Krapp’s Last Tape, written in 1958, and translated into French in the same year. The play is characterized by the stark opposition light/darkness, relating to the dualism of mind and body, which makes it a suitable case to study Beckett’s developing views on cognition. The notes, manuscripts and typescripts are therefore examined from a cognitive perspective. The study combines genetic criticism and cognitive narratology, starting from the research hypothesis that the connecting element in the dichotomies between light and darkness, mind and body is Time, and that, by introducing a temporal dimension, a genetic approach may be particularly relevant to the study of cognition in Krapp’s Last Tape.
This volume is part of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (BDMP), a collaboration between the Centre for Manuscript Genetics (University of Antwerp), the Beckett International Foundation (University of Reading) and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (University of Texas at Austin), with the support of the Estate of Samuel Beckett. The BDMP (www.beckettarchive.org) digitally reunites the dispersed manuscripts of Samuel Beckett’s works and facilitates their examination. The project consists of two parts:
a) a digital archive of Beckett’s manuscripts, with facsimiles and transcriptions, organized in modules;
b) a series of print volumes, analysing the genesis of Beckett’s works.
