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Renaissance Paratexts RENAISSANCE PARATEXTS EDITED BY HELEN SMITH AND LOUISE \øILSON w6 CevrnnrDGE qW UNTVERSITY PRESS Y' ryents Introduction Hel¿n Smith and Louise \Yikon r contributors. It has been both This introduction is a paratext. It is not the first paratext you have encoun- h them. Many of the authors tered in your approach to this book. You will have noticed its title, and at the Renaissance Paratexts registered its scholarly cover, either on the bookshelf or in a digitd rep- 'S7e r.July zoo6. would like to roduction by an internet seller like Amazon or Abebooks. You may have Association for their generous found this volume through a series of epitexts: a review, a publisher's flyer, huysen for helping us to secure or a search of a library catalogue or online database. Perhaps you followed a number of additional speakers, footnote in someone else's work or a reference in a bibliography, or one of re volume as awhole and many the contributors was shameless in promoting his or her chapter to you over are due to Christy Anderson, coffee at a conference. A passage or pithy sentence may have been quoted in nan, Peter Lindenbaum, Mike another text, persuading you this volume might be wonh consulting. Some y Panridge, Helen Pierce, Fred readers may never even reach this point, merely checking the copyright I Randy Mcleod, who has also information on the flyleaf to create a catalogue entry or fill out a meretri- n eady modern paratexts. cious bibliographical note. have been a constant source of Even now that you hold the book in your hands (or are scrolling through it came straight page one, 'e would especially like to thank on a computer screen), it is unlikeþ that you to , and Bill Sherman for their wit particularly given the number of pages that come before it. You may have :ars. At Cambridge University checked the table of contents, or leafed through the index, to find out which been unstinting in their patient chapters are relevant to yotrr work. It is possible that you went straight to the o thank the anonymous readers list of conuibutors to find out who the authors are, and what pretensions they rg the collection. In a book so hold to expenise in their field. Or perhaps you read the acknowledgements to rnd material meaning it seems see what networks the editors are part of; and what academic circles we are Lrptions of the paratext, and to trying to move into through flattery and thanla. Even the physical body of ction staffwho will/have made the book is paratextual, shaping your reading. Did you open this volume at a random page to check the font size and shape, the cleanness ofthe typeface, the size of the margins and the quality of the pages: how pleasurable this book would be as a thing to read? Or did you perhaps consult a few leaves out of sequence, seeing what grabbed your attention, and where your fancy led? Maybe one of the images we have included caught your eye and drew you in. However you have responded to the paratexts of this book, you are one of a long line of readers, all of whom have paid aftention, wittingly or Z ]HELEN SMITH AND LOUISE'W'ILSON text' and to the various unwittingly, to the physical presentation of the ,.rppl.-J''""ry tt*"' information' and addresses which sur- marginal ij]ã;."Jii,ioni'o. Perhap, ,tt. ut'í-u'own reader of these apparently brought the term 'para- ,;;..; is Gérard^Genette, the scholar whose work 1987 book se.uils^was translated rexts, into critical ,r... G..r.*.'s influential intoEnglish\ntggTunderthetiúeParatexts:Thresho|dsoflnterpretation,' 'inventory' (l). of the 'verbal or other The book proclaims i,t.ff tcl be-an it examines (Ð that affect a reader's approach to the text' and ;-d;,ì";' his analysis' Genette distin- and tabulates an array of liminal fo'*ì' In L.*..,t f.",,-ítt' like titles' dedications' and footnotes which are ñù which he calls peritexts' and situated within the same volume as the text' are located outside the epitexts: 'tho.. -.r."g.t ttt"t, at least originally' diaries' \Øhere previous Uã.f.; and include iutho' interviews' letters' and til informational' senerations of scholars have seen Paratexts as primarily :;;;ãì,; .or,.r.r. detail about the t.*t and its origins' Genette argues ih;; ,ü J."r¿ be read as rransacrional. He describes the paratext as on the public' îptrrìi.g.¿ p1".. of pr^gmatics.and a strategy of an influence achieved is at that - *t.int' well or poorly understood and - "JirrR,rå.. a more pertinent.reading' (z)' the service of a better feceprion of thå text'and Genette' to guide the reader The ourÞose .f ,ir. p"'"åxt is, according to s/he ¡,',i ,"nii.i.. ,,ru.,.ri. his or her approach to what "rìir"[".r., "ndio is about to read. '" of' ïtt. pr.r.nt volume is at once a response to' and an extension become a critical commonplace Genette's *id.-r"nging taxonomy' It has ã ,"gg.r, ,h", C.r,".,iË's survey áf p"'"tt*t""1^lossibiliti¡s lt-iÏ*Ï::11thrs objecton to historical difference and change. Genette raises .th"f before one studies ",,.rriiî.r-,ìÃr.n explaining it is appropriat. to"d.Ên. objects Paratexß is in part a result their evolution' Gl). Tht of 'ynth'ot'ìt "pp'o"th is the Ênal volume of of Genette's ,,ru.r,r.Ji,i'b"tkgtottnà; Parãtexts after The Architext Genette's trilogy o,t poetics' coming ""n"t*ti'alis thus a.late stage in Genettet project to Ggzg) Pali-prnt, GsSz)' It ^nd ,s.n.r"l For. inrertex- oíníon oo.ìi.. of transtexrualiry' which accourìrs :;;lüì;; ^ ,i"r*.rå.r, way, incorporating all relations within and berween on poetics exposes between t.rts th.ir reãders.'This emphasis t.*t, "nd Genette'sfocusontlt.ling"lttitelementsofthebook'anattentionthat"nd is"too.limited^' since' he points.out"texts " ' are Jerome McGann argues not exclusively linguistic'.' embodied ph.no-.ir, and the body of the t.*t i, with early modern A number of the .l"ptt" in this volume engage All are awa¡e of the ;;k" ;. objects *hi.h'"r. visible as well as l.gibl.. and whose book as an object *ftith is handled by panicular readers' CUISE'WILSON Introduction ) r of the text, and to the various physicality is constructed through the processes and operations ofthe printing narion, and addresses which sur- house. .er of these apparently marginal Renøissønce Paratexts reveals the importance of investigating the particular ose work brought the term 'para- paratextual conventions in play in different historical periods. fu Genette aJ. 1987 book Seails was translated makes clear, some paratexts 'are as old as literature; others came into being - texts : Thresltolds of Interpretation.' or acquired their official status, after centuries of "secret life" that constitute ntory' (l) of the 'verbal or other their prehistory - with the invention of the book; others, with the birth of roach to the text, and it examines journalism and the modern media' (r4). A number ofthe paratexts we listed at In his analysis, Genette distin- the beginning of this introduction are strikingly modern, panicularþ those cations, and footnotes which are made possible by computer technologies. Others, including the author inter- ext, which he calls peritexts, and view and the review, developed alongside the periodical industry from the riginally, are located outside the eighteenth century onwa¡ds.a A few are much older than the printed codex. tters, and diaries. \Øhere previous Most, however, came into being in the period with which this volume is exts as primarily informational, concerned, following the invention of printing in around 416, and the and its origins, Genette argues corresponding development of the book into the forms which a¡e familia¡ al. He describes the paratext as to us today. '"egy of aninfluence on the public, The early modern book differed from modern volumes in a number of 'l7orking ,r understood and achieved - is at important ways, not least in its construction. from manuscript and a more pertinent reading' (z). copy, a compositor would pick letters from the upper and lower cases before ; to Genette, to guide the reader him, and arrange them in a composing stick, from which they were trans- e his or her approach to what s/he ferred to a wooden forme. Another worker used leather-covered balls to coat the finished forme with ink. It was then placed in the bed of the press, and ponse to, and an extension of, the paper was pulled on to it to create an impression. The completed sheets become a critical commonplace were dried in the printer's warehouse, and stacked. They were then folded: xtual possibilities is insufficiently once to make a large-format folio, twice to make a smaller quarto, and three rge. Genette raises this objection times to produce an octavo. Some books were even smaller: in 1614 John r deÊne objects before one studies Taylor, the ''W'ater Poet', issued the first edition of his one-and-a-quarter by >ach of Paratexts is in part a result one-and-an-eighth inch 64mo thumb bible.t >ørãtexts is the final volume of Some paratexts, like printers' fowers (small type ornaments) and running :s, coming after The Architext titles, were an essential part of the printing process, locked into a skeleton late stage in Geneme's project to forme to frame the teft they accompanied.
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