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Paratexts : thresholds of interpretation / Gérard Genette ; translated by Jane E. Lewin ; foreword by Richard Macksey.
LIBRA P302 .G44414 1997
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Van Pelt Library P302 .G44414 1997
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Genette, Gérard, 1930-2018.
- Series:
- Literature, culture, theory ; 20.
- Literature, culture, theory ; 20
- Standardized Title:
- Seuils. English
- Language:
- English
- French
- Subjects (All):
- Literature publishing--History.
- Literature publishing.
- Discourse analysis, Literary.
- Authors and publishers.
- Transmission of texts.
- Criticism, Textual.
- Literary form.
- Books--Format.
- Books.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xxv, 427 pages ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 1997.
- Summary:
- 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.
- Contents:
- Formats 17
- Series 22
- Typesetting, printings 33
- 3 The name of the author 37
- Place 37
- Onymity 39
- Anonymity 42
- Pseudonymity 46
- 4 Titles 55
- Place 64
- Time 66
- Senders 73
- Addressees 74
- Functions 76
- Designation 79
- Connotations 89
- Temptation? 91
- Genre indications 94
- 5 The please-insert 104
- The four stages 104
- Tangents and appendages 114
- 6 Dedications and inscriptions 117
- The dedication of the work 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
- 7 Epigraphs 144
- Historical survey 144
- Place, time 149
- The "epigraphed" 150
- Epigraphers 153
- Epigraphees 155
- Functions 156
- 8 The prefatorial situation of communication 161
- Prehistory 163
- Form 170
- Place 172
- Time 174
- Senders 178
- Addressees 194
- 9 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
- Contextual information 218
- Statements of intent 221
- Genre definitions 224
- Dodges 229
- 10 Other prefaces, other functions 237
- Postfaces 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
- 11 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
- Definition, place, time 319
- Senders, addressees 322
- Functions 324
- Discursive texts: original notes 325
- Discursive texts: later notes 328
- Discursive texts: delayed notes 330
- Texts of fiction 332
- Allographic notes 337
- Actorial notes 339
- Fictional notes 340
- 13 The public epitext 344
- The publisher's epitext 347
- The semiofficial allographic epitext 348
- The public authorial epitext 351
- Auto-reviews 352
- Public responses 354
- Mediations 356
- Delayed autocommentaries 367
- 14 The private epitext 371
- Correspondence 372
- Oral confidences 384
- Diaries 387
- Pre-texts 395.
- Notes:
- Translation of: Seuils.
- ISBN:
- 0521413508
- 0521424062
- OCLC:
- 36778284
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