BDMP Volume 8: The Making of Samuel Beckett’s Play / Comédie and Film

The latest volume in the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project series, written by Olga Beloborodova, has just been released by Bloomsbury / UPA. It discusses the genesis of Beckett’s short play Play / Comédie and his only film Film. Written around the same time (1962-1963), the two works have self- referential titles that invite meditation on the genres they represent. Although medium-specific, opportunities and challenges underlie their very different geneses, they have each influenced the other in terms of both form and content. This genetic critical analysis of the manuscripts of Play / Comédie and Film not only contributes to the interpretation of each work separately but also considers the two works together through the prism of Beckett’s multimedial authorship. 

Olga Beloborodova is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Manuscript Genetics, University of Antwerp, Belgium.  

This volume is part of the Beckett Digital Manuscript Project (BDMP, http://www.beckettarchive.org), 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 and the European Research Council. The BDMP reunites the dispersed manuscripts of Samuel Beckett’s works in an online environment and thus facilitates their examination for the Beckett Community. To find out more about subscription for the digital modules, please visit our website. For more information on other books in the BDMP series, please visit the UPA and Bloomsbury websites. 

To order this latest – or any other – BDMP volume, please visit the publishers’ websites (UPA for Europe – https://www.aspeditions.be/en-gb/book/the-making-of-samuel-becketts-playcomedie-and-film/16726.htm and Bloomsbury for UK / the Americas / World – https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/search?q=BDMP&Gid=1). The BDMP books are also available in other major online bookstores.