On the problem of authentic reproduction of draft manuscripts (notebooks) by F. M. Dostoevsky

The article deals with the problem of textual and publishing practices of presenting the writer’s draft manuscripts in an authentic form. The appeal to the material of drafts (“notebooks”) by F.M. Dostoevsky testifies to the need to reproduce not only the verbal components of the draft, but also nonverbal one, which has fundamentally important semiotic information about the origin, development and embodiment of the writer’s creative idea. The established practices of publishing draft manuscripts reduce the nonverbal aspect of the appearance of the writer’s page, and therefore various “ideograms” (drawings, strokes, author’s marks) remain outside the representation of the draft. The digital diplomatic transcription of a writer’s manuscript can solve this problem. The description of the scientific path to textual “diplomacy” shows that this aspect of working with writers’ drafts has long been maturing in the depths of literary criticism. The textological science of the 20th century has significantly developed ideas about the essence and meaning of a writer’s draft, defining it as a primary historical and literary document. This problematizes the question of the forms and methods of publishing draft autographs. Currently, the development of electronic technologies for working with manuscripts allows you to create a diplomatic transcription of the manuscript as a maximum reproduction of the authenticity of the author’s page, preserving all the elements of ideography and facilitating the reading of the handwritten text. Based on the material of Dostoevsky’s manuscripts, an instruction (recommendation) is proposed for the possible construction of a digital appearance of a handwritten page. Work on creating authentic (digital) images of drafts (“notebooks”) Dostoevsky is seen as promising, both in historical and literary, and in theoretical and methodological (textual) aspects.