Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation

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 book's private and public history. In this first English translation of Paratexts, G_rard 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 Macksey's foreword situates Genette in contemporary literary theory.

Gerard Genette is Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Visiting Professor in the Department of French, New York University.