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Paratext
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paratext is a concept in literary interpretation. The main text of published aut
hors (e.g. the story, non-fiction description, poems, etc.) is often surrounded
by other material supplied by editors, printers, and publishers, which is known
as the paratext. These added elements form a frame for the main text, and can ch
ange the reception of a text or its interpretation by the public. Paratext is mo
st often associated with books, as they typically include a cover (with associat
ed cover art), title, front matter (dedication, opening information, foreword),
back matter (endpapers, colophon) footnotes, and many other materials not crafte
d by the author. Other editorial decisions can also fall into the category of pa
ratext, 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 par
atextual materials, but often that is not the case. One example of controversy s
urrounding paratext is the case of the 2009 young adult novel Liar, which was in
itially published with an image of a white girl on the cover, although the narra
tor of the story was identified in the text as black.
The concept of paratext is closely related to the concept of hypotext, which is
the earlier text that serves as a source for the current text.
Contents [hide]
1 Theory
2 See also
3 References
4 Bibliography
Theory[edit]
Literary theorist Grard Genette defines paratext as those things in a published w
ork that accompany the text, things such as the author's name, the title, prefac
e or introduction, or illustrations.[1] Genette states "More than a boundary or
a sealed border, the paratext is, rather, a threshold." It is "a zone between te
xt and off-text, a zone not only of transition but also of transaction: a privil
eged place of pragmatics and a strategy, of an influence on the public, an influ
ence that ... is at the service of a better reception for the text and a more pe
rtinent 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".

See also[edit]
Diegesis
Mimesis
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Genette Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation page 1
Bibliography[edit]
Genette, Grard: Seuils. Paris: ditions du Seuil, 1987. (translated as Paratexts. T
hresholds of interpretation, Cambridge: CUP, 1997)
Huber, Alexander: Paratexte in der englischen Erzhlprosa des 18. Jahrhunderts [Pa
ratexts in eighteenth-century English prose fiction]. (Master's thesis [in Germa
n]). Munich: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt (LMU) Mnchen, 1997. [discusses Henry Fi
elding's Tom Jones, Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub, and Laurence Sterne's Tris
tram Shandy]
Mllerov, Lenka: Reklamn aspekty sekundrnch kni nch textu v devadestch letech 20. stol
esis). Available from http://is.muni.cz/th/117754/ff_d/?lang=en;id=121545

Ronald Collins & David Skover, "Paratexts," Stanford Law Review, vol. 44, pp. 50
9 552 (1992)
Stanitzek, Georg: Texts and Paratexts in Media, trans. Ellen Klein, in: Critical
Inquiry 32,1 (Autumn 2005), pp. 27 42.
Categories: Critical theoryLiterary theoryNarratology
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