Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation

Gerard Genette

Cambridge University Press, Mar 13, 1997 - Literary Criticism - 427 pages

Paratexts are those liminal devices and conventions, both within and outside the book, that form part of the complex mediation between book, author, publisher and reader: titles, forewords, epigraphs and publishers' jacket copy are part of a book's private and public history. In this first English translation of Paratexts, Gérard Genette shows how the special pragmatic status of paratextual declaration requires a carefully calibrated analysis of their illocutionary force. With clarity, precision and an extraordinary range of reference, Paratexts constitutes an encyclopedic survey of the customs and institutions as revealed in the borderlands of the text. Genette presents a global view of these liminal mediations and the logic of their relation to the reading public by studying each element as a literary function. Richard Macksey's foreword describes how the poetics of paratexts interact with more general questions of literature as a cultural institution, and situates Gennet's work in contemporary literary theory.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• The publishers peritext: 16
• Formats: 17
• Series: 22
• The cover and its appendages: 23
• The title page and its appendages: 32
• Typesetting printings: 33
• The name of the author: 37
• Onymity: 39
• Anonymity: 42
• Pseudonymity: 46
• Titles: 55
• Place: 64
• Time: 66
• Senders: 73
• Addressees: 74
• Functions: 76
• Designation: 79
• Connotations: 89
• Temptation?: 91
• Genre indications: 94
• The pleaseinsert: 104
• Tangents and appendages: 114
• Dedications and inscriptions: 117
• Place: 126
• Time: 127
• Dedicators: 129
• Dedicatees: 131
• Functions: 135
• The inscription of the copy: 136
• Place time: 138
• Inscriber inscribee: 139
• Functions: 140
• Epigraphs: 144
• Place time: 149
• The epigraphed: 150
• Epigraphers: 153
• Epigraphees: 155
• Functions: 156
• The prefatorial situation of communication: 161
• Prehistory: 163
• Form: 170
• Place: 172
• Time: 174
• Senders: 178
• Addressees: 194
• The functions of the original preface: 196
• The themes of the why: 198
• Importance: 199
• Novelty tradition: 200
• Unity: 201
• Truthfulness: 206
• Lightning rods: 207
• The themes of the how: 209
• Genesis: 210
• Choice of a public: 212
• Commentary on the title: 213
• Contracts of fiction: 215
• The order in which to read: 218
• Statements of intent: 221
• Genre definitions: 224
• Dodges: 229
• Other prefaces other functions: 237
• Later prefaces: 239
• Delayed prefaces: 247
• Allographic prefaces: 263
• Actorial prefaces: 276
• Fictional prefaces: 277
• Disavowing authorial prefaces: 280
• Fictive authorial prefaces: 284
• Fictive allographic prefaces: 288
• Fictive actorial prefaces: 291
• Mirrors: 292
• Intertitles: 294
• Cases of absence: 295
• Degrees of presence: 297
• Narrative fiction: 298
• History: 309
• Didactic texts: 311
• Collections: 312
• Tables of contents running heads: 316
• Notes: 319
• Senders addressees: 322
• Functions: 324
• original notes: 325
• later notes: 328
• delayed notes: 330
• Texts of fiction: 332
• Allographic notes: 337
• Actorial notes: 339
• Fictional notes: 340
• The public epitext: 344
• The publishers epitext: 347
• The semiofficial allographic epitext: 348
• The public authorial epitext: 351
• Autoreviews: 352
• Public responses: 354
• Mediations: 356
• Delayed autocommentaries: 367
• The private epitext: 371
• Correspondence: 372
• Oral confidences: 384
• Diaries: 387
• Pretexts: 395
• Conclusion: 404
• Additional references: 411
• Index: 419

Bibliographic information

• Title: Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation; Volume 20 of Literature, Culture, Theory
• Author: Gerard Genette
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1997
• ISBN: 0521424062, 9780521424066
• Length: 427 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / Semiotics & Theory