In literary interpretation, paratext is material that surrounds a published main text (e.g., the story, non-fiction description, poems, etc.) supplied by the authors, editors, printers, and publishers. These added elements form a frame for the main text, and can change the reception of a text or its interpretation by the public. Paratext is most often associated with

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physi ...

s, as they typically include a cover (with associated cover art), title,

front matter Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...

(dedication, opening information, foreword),

back matter Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit. In the words of renowned typographer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though ...

(endpapers, colophon) footnotes, and many other materials not crafted by the author. Other editorial decisions can also fall into the category of paratext, such as the formatting or typography. Because of their close association with the text, it may seem that authors should be given the final say about paratextual materials, but often that is not the case. One example of controversy surrounding paratext is the case of the 2009 young adult novel '' Liar'', which was initially published with an image of a white girl on the cover, although the narrator of the story was identified in the text as black. The concept of paratext is closely related to the concept of

hypotext Hypotext is an earlier text which serves as the source of a subsequent piece of literature, or hypertext. For example, Homer's Odyssey could be regarded as the hypotext for James Joyce's '' Ulysses''. The word was defined by the French theorist ...

, which is the earlier text that serves as a source for the current text.

Theory

Literary theorist Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mora ...

Gérard Genette defines paratext as those things in a published work that accompany the text, things such as the author's name, the title,

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often close ...

introduction Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and g ...

, or illustrations. He states, "More than a boundary or a sealed border, the paratext is, rather, a threshold." It is "a zone between text and off-text, a zone not only of transition but also of transaction: a privileged place of pragmatics and a strategy, of an influence on the public, an influence that ... is at the service of a better reception for the text and a more pertinent reading of it". Then quoting Philippe Lejeune, Genette further describes paratext as "a fringe of the printed text which in reality controls one's whole reading of the text". This threshold consists of a peritext, consisting of elements such as titles, chapter titles, prefaces and notes. It also includes an epitext, which consists of elements such as interviews, publicity announcements, reviews by and addresses to critics, private letters and other authorial and editorial discussions – 'outside' of the text in question. The paratext is the sum of the peritext and epitext.

References

Bibliography

* Genette, Gérard: ''Seuils''. Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1987. (translated as ''Paratexts. Thresholds of interpretation'', Cambridge: CUP, 1997) * Huber, Alexander:
Paratexte in der englischen Erzählprosa des 18. Jahrhunderts [Paratexts in eighteenth-century English prose fiction]
'. (Master's thesis n German. Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München, 1997. iscusses Henry Fielding's ''Tom Jones'', Jonathan Swift's ''A Tale of a Tub'', and Laurence Sterne's ''Tristram Shandy''* Müllerová, Lenka: Reklamní aspekty sekundárních knižních textů v devadesátých letech 20. století (Thesis). Available from http://is.muni.cz/th/117754/ff_d/?lang=en;id=121545 * * {{Aristotelianism Critical theory Literary theory Narratology

Theory

See also

References

Bibliography