Yahia Fares University- Medea

Module: Text Studies Level: 1st Year LMD

Mr. A.Benahmedi

Lesson “01”: Introduction to Paratext

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.

Liminal devices: are the paratextual elements OR “The threshholds”.

Threshold consists of:

Peritext : consisting of the paratextual elements and conventions “within” the

book such as titles, name of the author, chapter titles, prefaces, forewords,
epigraphs and notes.

Epitext: consisting of elements such as interviews, publicity announcements,

reviews by and addresses to critics, private letters and other authorial and editorial
discussions “outside” of the text in question.

Jacket copy: that briefest of descriptions which must, at quick glance, convey to a
potential reader all the brilliance and complexity of the book.

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 Yahia Fares University- Medea
Module: Text Studies Level: 1st Year LMD
Mr. A.Benahmedi

Lesson “02”: The Publisher’s Peritext:

The cover and its appendages

Cover 1 (front cover):

• Name or pseudonym of the author(s) • Title(s) of the author(s) [e.g., professor

of ..., member of ..., etc.] • Title(s) of the work • Genre indication • Name of the
translator(s), of the preface-writer(s), of the person(s) responsible for establishing
the text and preparing the critical apparatus • Dedication • Epigraph • Likeness of
the author or, for some biographical or critical studies, of whoever is the subject of
the study • Facsimile of the author's signature • Specific illustration • Name and/or
colophon of the series • Name of the person(s) responsible for this series • In the
case of a reprint, mention of the original series • Name or trade name and/or initials
and/or colophon of the publisher (or, in the case of a co-publication, of both
publishers) • Address of the publisher • Number of printings, or "editions," or
"thousands" • Date • Price

Usually these localized verbal, numerical, or iconographic items of information are

supplemented by more comprehensive ones pertaining to the style or design of the
cover, characteristic of the publisher, the series, or a group of series. Simply the
color of the paper chosen for the cover can strongly indicate a type of book.

Covers 2 and 3, the inside front and back covers, are generally mute, but this rule
admits of exceptions: magazines often put publisher's information there.

Cover 4, the back cover, is another strategically important spot, which may contain
at least the following:

• Reminder, for the benefit of those with deep amnesia, of the name of the author
and the title of the work

• Biographical and/or bibliographical notice

• Please-insert

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 Yahia Fares University- Medea
Module: Text Studies Level: 1st Year LMD
Mr. A.Benahmedi

• Blurb: press quotations or other laudatory comments about earlier works by the
same author or, indeed, about the current work itself. To put it simply, a blurb is the
text on back cover of a book. It is a summary of the story. It aims to get the reader
interested in buying or reading the book.

• Mention of other works published by the same house • Genre indication, • Series
statement of principles, or intent • Date of printing • Number of reprintings
• Mention of the cover's printer • Mention of the designer of the cover art
• Identification of the cover illustration • Price.

• ISBN (International Standard Book Number); the ISBN system was created in
1975; the first numeral indicates the language of publication, the second the
publisher, the third the book's own number within this publisher's output, and the
fourth is an electronic control key

• Magnetic bar code, in the process of being generalized for obvious practical
reasons; this is undoubtedly the only piece of information the reader can do
absolutely nothing with.

• "Paid" advertisement - that is, paid to the publisher by a manufacturer outside of

publishing; it is up to the reader to establish an ad's relation to the theme of the
book.

The spine, a narrow site but one with obvious strategic importance, generally bears
the name of the author, the colophon of the publisher, and the title of the work. And
here a technical quarrel rages between those who favor horizontal printing and
those who favor vertical, and, among the latter, between those who favor an
ascending vertical (most French publishers) and those who favor a descending
vertical (a few French and most foreign publishers, who argue that this arrangement
is compatible with the position of a book lying flat on its back, allowing both its
front cover and its spine to be read)

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 Yahia Fares University- Medea
Module: Text Studies Level: 1st Year LMD
Mr. A.Benahmedi

Lesson “03”: The Publisher’s Peritext:

I. The Name of the Author

1- Place:
The name of the author’s appearance in the “peritext” is in practice only restricted
and limited to the” title page” and the cover (cover 1, with possible reminders on
the spine and cover 4). The author’s name appears nowhere else in the “peritext”

2- States of the author’s name in the “peritext”:

The name of the author can appear in three main conditions with many intermediate
states. Either the author signs with his real name ("onymity") as is most often the
case in modern times. The author can also resort to a false name ("pseudonymity"),
or the author does not sign at all (anonymity), as in the case in Swift's A Tale of a
Tub.
a- “Onymity”: an author prefers onymity when he has already established
fame. Under the rules of onymity, the name of the author is the name of
whoever is putatively responsible for the work, whatever his real role in
producing it. Onymity also helps indicate the sex of the author (which may
have crucial thematic relevance), and the author's nationality or social class,
and for female authors, the surname may determine their marital status, their
existential or ideological preferences.
b- "Anonymity": is "degree zero," but even then it has important semiotic and
"paratextual" overtones. It is resorted to for various reasons, but mainly as a
precautionary measure against libel suits. But the author is not always the
sender of his name; the publisher can also do it. This is what distinguishes
the act of putting a name on the cover or "title page" (usually done by the
publisher) from the act of signing the text by the author himself.

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 Yahia Fares University- Medea
Module: Text Studies Level: 1st Year LMD
Mr. A.Benahmedi

A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub, with its queer title, first appeared in 1704 without the name of the
author, it created a lot of sensation in London. Readers started guessing at the
identity of the author. Some hinted at Sir William Temple while others pointed to
Lord Somers. It was only six years later that Swift divulged the secret and came out
into the open in the Postscript to the Apology written in 1710, claiming the entire
book as his own and challenging any person to prove "his claim to three lines in the
whole book". Swift's anonymous publication of the Tale was, perhaps, in keeping
with his usual practice of mystifying the readers.

c- "Pseudonymity" refers to the use of a fictive name. It is the practice of

putting a name of the author that is not his legal and real name. There can be
various forms of pseudonyms. "Pseudonymity" is more widespread in the
domain of literature and theatre. It is ,however, less popular with musicians,
painters or architects.