Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (Literature, Culture, Theory, Series Number 20)

Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (Literature, Culture, Theory, Series Number 20) by Genette, Gerard. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780521424066.

Paratexts are those liminal devices and conventions, both within and outside the book, that mediate between book, author and reader: titles, forewords and publishers jacket copy form part of a books private and public history. In this first English translation of Paratexts, Gérard Genette offers a global view of these liminal mediations and their relation to the reading public. With precision, clarity and through wide reference, he shows how paratexts interact with general questions of literature as a cultural institution. Richard Mackseys foreword situates Genette in contemporary literary theory.