Paratexts
Thresholds of Interpretation
1st Edition
Published on 4. April 2011
978-0-511-87999-9 (ISBN)
Description
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, Gerard 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.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Cambridge University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
File size
46,85 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-511-87999-9 (9780511879999)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/1997
Cambridge University Press
€194.80
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Content
Foreword; Translator's note; 1. Introduction; 2. The publisher's peritext; 3. The name of the author; 4. Titles; 5. The please-insert; 6. Dedications and inscriptions; 7. Epigraphs; 8. The prefatorial situation of communication; 9. The functions of the original preface; 10. Other prefaces, other functions; 11. Intertitles; 12. Notes; 13. The public epitext; 14. The private epitext; 15. Conclusion; Additional references; Index.
