European University Institute Library

Paratexts, thresholds of interpretation, Gérard Genette ; translated by Jane E. Lewin ; foreword by Richard Macksey

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Paratexts

electronic resource

dictionariesbibliography

867050409

Gérard Genette ; translated by Jane E. Lewin ; foreword by Richard Macksey

ACLS Humanities E-Book

thresholds of interpretation

"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 Paratexts, an English translation of Seuils, Gerard Genette shows how the special pragmatic status of paratextual declarations 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 of the Republic of Letters as they are 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 interacts with more general questions of literature as a cultural institution, and situates Genette's work in contemporary literary theory."--Jacket.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction -- The publisher's peritext -- The name of the author -- Titles -- The please-insert -- Dedications and inscriptions -- Epigraphs -- The prefatorial situtation of communication -- The functions of the original preface -- Other prefaces, other functions -- Intertitles -- Notes -- The public epitext -- The private epitext -- Conclusion