----------------------- Page 1----------------------Pretexts and Paratexts: The Art of the Peripheral

Author(s): Marie Maclean

Source: New Literary History, Vol. 22, No. 2, Probings: Art, Criticism, Genre
(Spring, 1991), pp.
273-279
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/469038
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----------------------- Page 2----------------------Pretexts and Paratexts:
The Art of the
Peripheral
Marie Maclean
MICHEL SERRES defines the ambivalent and

status of
pivotal

the

in
threshold

artistic endeavor by
or closes a threshold which

door

an
apt analogy: "A
to
is held
be such

opens
because at this

a law is overturned: on one side

a certain
spot
reigns
rule, on the other begins a new law, so that the door rests on its
hinges on a neutral line where the two rules of law balance and
cancel each other. . . . The
site is a
of neither this
singular
part

nor
world

the other

it
or else

to both."' Studies of

belongs
in all the human

have
applications
threshold and its

liminality
but it is the textual

sciences,
Gerard
which
Genette

implications
most
entitled

latest
work,

in
his
explores

or
The
Seuils,2

thresholds.

appropriately
signs and

which
"fringes"

are an

and surround the text itself

accompany

and

of textual
frequently neglected aspect
production.
categorizes and
with immense erudition,
Seuils
surveys,
from the
of the author's
everything
problematic
highly
question
name through to such authorial
as interviews and
afterthoughts
comments. Names and
titles and subtitles,
epistolary
pseudonyms,
cover notes, blurbs,
and
dedications, notes, prefaces
postfaces, epand
all are dealt with. Few
Genette's acerbic
igraphs
"epitexts,"
escape
sense of
which turns a
into a constant
humor,
catalogue
potential
The
entertainment.
book
a wide field for further
research
opens
and raises some
central
about literature.
extremely
questions
Not the least of
the
a
these is
between
text and its
relationship
frame. A
after
frame
all is what relates a
to its context. But
text
it
in
different
It
as a
may operate
many
ways.
may appear
purely
as when a
is surrounded
the white
spatial relationship,
poem
by
page, a canvas set against a bare wall. Then again it may be so
as
a
cumbersome
to
the text
foot of
eclipse
itself,
gilt surrounding
a
or
of
which
miniature, the
notes
threatens to
tiny
weight
submerge
a
text.
marginal
The frame
act as a means of leading the eye
may
into the
into
important

and the reader

the
thus
itself
picture,
text,
presenting
as the
to a
world; or it
lead the
key
solipsistic
may deliberately
eye
and
the
to
on
context rather
out,
encourage
reader
concentrate
the
New

22: 273-279
1991,
Literary History,
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----------------------- Page 3----------------------274

NEW LITERARY

HISTORY

than the text. Sometimes indeed the frame defines the text,
by
or

at others it defines the

appropriateness
complementarity;
context,
like an
carved art nouveau
to a
mirror.
elaborately
setting
simple
In texts
of
verbal
the frame itself is to
composed
printed
signs
a
extent textual and
verbal,
the visual and
large
highly
although
of the cover are a
tool. As Genette
aspects
powerful
points
physical
out, various forms of paratextual apparatus have been elaborated
over the
and a
cover
the title and
centuries,
simple
bearing only
into
of the
either
leading straight
the opening
text is
an anomaly
or a relic of the distant
The verbal
or
past.
frame,
paratext, may
enhance the
it
define
it
contrast with
it
text,
may
it, may
it, may
distance
or it
be so
as to seem to form
of it.
it,
may
disguised
part
the
a
in
In fact
frame
defines
different
by necessity
relationship
its
to that between the text itself and
audience. This is the
quality
between the creator or owner of a text on the one
relationship
such as the
the
or the
and the
hand,
author,
editor,
sponsor,
public
on the
between the senders and receivers of the
other,
message.
The
between
and text
be most
distinction
paratext
may
clearly
observed
act
There are, as Genette
by applying speech
theory.

observes,

different
acts involved in the
completely
illocutionary
in
of
and
the text of a work
fiction.
it is here that
paratext
Indeed,
we see most
the
of the two "rules of law" which
clearly
working
Serres
as
on either side of the textual threshold.
posits
standing
a
of
in
The
involves
series
first order
acts
paratext
illocutionary
which the
the
or the
are
author,
editor,
prefacer
frequently using
direct
are informing,
or
performatives. They
persuading, advising,
indeed
and
the reader. On the other hand
exhorting
commanding
the world of the fictional text is one of second order speech acts
where even the most
of narrators
not to the real
personal
belongs
world but to the
world. The distinction
be seen
represented
may
between the title
and dedication of Don
first order
page
Quixote,
acts
and the
to Part
second order
speech
by Cervantes,
prologue
I,
The
not
speech acts by a narrator.
difference is
that of sincerity
or, as Austin
it, of
since the
be
put
"felicity,"
paratextual may
or ineffective. As Ross
in
insincere
Chambers
out,
patently
points
his "Baudelaire's Dedicatory
the paratextual
seem
Practice,"3
may
to
one
of
or
be addressed to
receivers
readers
group
particular
while
intended
and received
a
different
being
for,
by, quite
actually
Thus the
"To the
group.
dedicatory performative
may
bourgeois"4
a quite different
to an audience of
an
convey
message
bourgeois,
audience of
a
or a twentiethartists,
audience,
nineteenth-century
but this does not alter
a
its status as
first
audience,
order
century
act,
addressed to a
audience and not
illocutionary
directly
potential
of the
world of fiction.
part
represented

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----------------------- Page 4----------------------PRETEXTS
The

AND PARATEXTS

275

of fashion
to
message "No young lady
can afford
be without
this book"
in a
has a
status from "It is
appearing
preface
different
a truth
that a
man in
universally
single
possession
acknowledged,
of a
must be in want of a
since the second
good fortune,
wife,"
forms
of the
world of the text.
message already
part
represented
It is not that one is more or less "valid" than the
the book
other,
may be a dead loss to any young lady, and the single man is
"in want" of a wife even if he doesn't want one. It is
presumably
from
textual.
that
has a different status
the
simply
the paratextual
I have explored this question at length in my book Narrative as
Performance.5
me
The
of
status which
interests
question
paratextual
particularly
I
as a direct authorial
is that of the
which
act,
title,
regard
speech
a
with the reader or readers. It
having special relationship
appears
manifestation of
Of course
too as the most characteristic
liminality.
any part of the paratextual is in a way liminal. A frame acts as
when
a threshold both
as Genette
and we cross
threshold,
observes,
we enter a
and when we leave. Yet the liminal is most
space
easily
into
with
a new
as
associated
whether
home,
perceived
being
entry,
a new
or a new
with
the most
world,
Perhaps
relationship
society.
obvious
the obvious
stone
into the
threshold,
stepping
provided
is the title.
to
in
different
text,
Titles provide keys
reading
many
with
whether
are thematic or rhematic
concerned
ways
they
(merely

or Anna Karenina
as Genette
content)

it. Thus even Silas Marner

puts
toward a certain

as well as
the name
already point
genre,
indicating
of the
Titles
work on the
of inclusion,
protagonist.
may
principle
wide a
code as
like Lace or War
appealing to as
cultural
possible,
and Peace.
on the other hand,
exclude, as
They may,
deliberately
V.
Electric
to
does
or Do Androids dream
They may appeal
of
Sheep?
both
or a
local color.
can indicate
a
doxa
particular
They
particular
sameness and
with the wider
or a deliberate
identification
community
of difference.
be so broad as to be
marking
They may
meaningless,
like Love
or
to an
or subculture. One
Story, intelligible only
in-group
of the most common appeals of the title is the appeal to intertexand
exclusion.
both
inclusion
an
which works
by
by
tuality,
appeal
the
or the
will
A
which identifies
quotation
style
accept
readership
the more
a
intertext
led
the author toward specific
willingly
being
by
Titles which
because their
is flattered
"in the know."
vanity
by being
the
within themselves
contain a reference such as "utopia" subsume
of the
title
many voices, the ever widening connotations
original
quote or
they
parody.
offers
to control
But in
case, the title
guidance, attempts
every
of
the reader's
to the
and the reader's construction
approach
text,
it
sometimes
It
Sometimes functions
that text.
sincerely,
insincerely.
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----------------------- Page 5----------------------276

NEW LITERARY

HISTORY

obscure or mislead. It
be aimed at a general
may deliberately
may
or a small
depending on whether the artist sees his
public
ingroup,
as a
or as an intimate one.
or her function
broadly public
However,
no
not even an innocuous
or
leaves the
title,
Essays
Observations,
to
whether
or
reader unaffected and fails
influence,
positively negThe classic
as Genette
out, is
a title
atively.
example,
points
Ulysses,
from that
which has ensured a
for the text
different
reading
vastly
which
have been
had it been called Dublin
might
expected
Days.
own
of
of titles reveal their
Genette's
strings
examples
importance
in
as
in a
He
all
titles their
way.
gives
English
guidance
very telling
French
and it is borne in on one
that the
translation,
very forcibly
Bell Tolls and that of Pour
sonne le
reader of For Whom the
qui
glas
different
and
are
to
the text with
associations
going
approach
very
expectations.
Another
raised
the
is that it
a
question
by
paratext
represents
means of
the text
the
attribute of
lending
authority, originally
very
the author. Here the main factors are those of the author's name
work in
and of the preface and dedication, although the latter's
is
assumed in our days by the blurb
lending authority increasingly
or back cover notice. The
of authorial nomenclature reflects
history
the
of literature as an
of
as well as the
growth
object
consumption
modern
of the text as individual
relatively
phenomenon
possession,
it
of
or the house which
either
the author who copyrights
publishes
it. Both editors and public have come more and more to demand
the "brand name" which lends
to the
The use
authority
product.
of
is also
whether
instructive,
pseudonyms
endlessly
they represent

and
an

to acquire auctoritas

or an
gravitas,

to shed
attempt

attempt
as when eminent scholars write detective
or when a
them,
stories,
Mikhail Bakhtin must publish under the names of his students to
avoid censorship.
One area of
social
in that it so
relates the
great
interest,
clearly
of
to the
to the
and to
circumstances
production
editor,
family,
with
and
is that of the choice of
society,
its fashions
ideologies,
in the
This is a field
touched on
gender
pseudonym.
only briefly
work
but one where some
has been done
by Genette,
outstanding
feminist critics. A
penetrating
of the
already by
particularly
analysis
assumption or rejection of the name, the pseudonym, and the
is Anne Freadman's
and the
"Of Cats,
Name
patronym
Companions
of
Sand."' The
of the auctoritas,
and
George
importance
gravitas,
indeed
attached to the author's name was well underlined,
pietas
and
of
sent
the choice
of the brilliant
delightfully
up, by
pseudonym
science fiction writer
(Alice B. Sheldon) who
James Tiptree, Jr.
hoaxed his/her
for a number of
successfully
large readership
years.
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----------------------- Page 6----------------------PRETEXTS

AND PARATEXTS
a man could

277

such
such scientific
display
toughness,
extrapsuch
into the masculine
and so
olation,
insight
mind,"
on.)7
it
The
lent
the dedication is
and
has
authority
by
diverse,
changed
over the
of literature. Both Genette in Seuils
considerably
history
and Chambers, in "Baudelaire's
Practice,"
Dedicatory
distinguish
four
the dedication to a muse or the
of
stages,
authority
divinity,
to
the dedication
a
or the
of
the dedication
patron
authority power,
("Only

to a fellow artist or aesthetic

dedication to
and

and
the
authority,
finally
purely private
or
since the
to
friend,
lover,
partner,
appeal
power
to
to
An
has tended
switch the cover note.
interesting

precedent
feature here is the

in

as the dedication moves from

gender,
(female)
to the economic
divinity
through

swing
altruistic thanks to a
or
of financial

artistic
almost
male
prudence
"protection,"8
invariably
(although queens and noble ladies were favored dedicatees), and
back to the
hence of course
female,
finally
private,
predominantly
once
to the
is
One reason for the return
dedicatee
again.
private
that in
is rather
of
modern times the appeal to authority
to that
the critic and the
The media have acquired that instant
publicist.
of
fiat textual life or death which was once the
of
prerogative royalty
or the nobility.
Chambers sees the dedication as both
and
Prepre-text
pretext.
in
text
that "It is tied to the text as structure and available to the
or
it
reader as an
indicator
to
but
also
interpretive
"key"
meaning,
with
In
it
interfaces
a social situation.
this sense
serves
... obviously
as an index to the circumstances of textual
and makes
production
available the contextual
the text
as a social
claim,
meaningfulness
may
and historical
At the same time it is
as Chambers
entity."9
pretext,
since it
to the
of the
amply demonstrates,
may appeal
authority
dedicatee and
ironize it. Baudelaire's dedication of
simultaneously
the Petits
en
to Arsene Houssaye is a classic piece of
pomes
prose
ambivalence, the artistic
of "To my wife,
dedicatory
equivalent
without whom . . . ." In a similar
the dedication
seem to
way
may
a
in a
to and hence
with conventional
appeal
identify
readership
in
to

conventional social

while
itself such a
as
situation,
coding
way
bear a secret
to "the
the
or
message
happy few,"
private group,
even the future
who will understand the message.'0 A
readership
also be an act of
an act of
or
preface may
direction,
misdirection,
time.
makes the
both at the same
Sterne
changing
by
Again,
point
of
as
act and
it in the
the status
the "preface"
speech
including
text.
raise is whether
Now the interesting question which these studies
of authorial and indeed
they
a
to a new consideration
open
way
and
"intention." No one would
a return
editorial
prefatorial
suggest
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----------------------- Page 7----------------------278

NEW LITERARY HISTORY

to the

limitations

the
to so-called
imposed by
appeal
authorial
on the
and
of
but
authority
reading
interpretation texts,
it
of
letter
It
perhaps
is a case
"Intention not dead,
follows.""
can
and
to
the name the author
be both valuable
instructive
compare
it
and other
the
the
was allotted
authorial
gave
text,
genre
to,
claims,
pretensions, and modifications, with the text which ultimately
from the interaction of 6nonciation,
and audience,
emerges
6nonce,
the text
in
which
The
bearer
emerges
performance.
paratext, "always
of an authorial
either more or less
the
pernicious

commentary,
the text
between
constitutes,

what
and

legitimated by
outside
lies
a zone
it,

author,
not
of
but of
the
site of a
just
transition,
transaction;
privileged
and of a
of an action on the
in the
pragmatics
strategy,
public

service, well or badly understood and accomplished, of a better

of
the text and a more
reception
pertinent reading-more pertinent,
in the
of the author and his
Thus the
naturally,
eyes
allies.""12
is
author
shown as the
where the
intentions,
paratext
place
displays
where he or she speaks to the reader as sender to receiver. Whether
or
this
is successful or
honest
does
message
unsuccessful,
dishonest,
not
of the
In
affect the

status

acts involved.
speech
not so much or not

illocutionary
the

Chambers's

eyes
model of author-reader

paratext presents

Authors

only
but even more of author-text

relationships
be seen either

to a

relationships.
may
desperately clinging
placental
with a text which has
rapport
passed irretrievably beyond
their control, or vigorously launching it into a new life totally
controlled
that
feared third
the reader. In
by
necessary yet
party,
either case the
which itself consists of a text or texts,
paratext,
however
is
to
and hence to
minimal, subject
reading
interpretation.
The question is whether the author can successfully
the
controlled

propose
as a model for the

of the

smaller,
strategies
paratext
reading of the text as a whole or only be "a caressing prefacer,
his
as a lover sometimes
a
reader,
does
stifling
The

into

coy mistress,
between
practice,
naming
of the art of the
peripheral.

between intention and

silence."'3
gap
and
is also the
performing,
sphere

MONASH UNIVERSITY,

MELBOURNE

NOTES
1 Michel Serres, Statues
1987), 90,
translation.
(Paris,
p.
my
2 Gerard Genette,
(Paris, 1987). The title of the book is also a tribute
to its
Seuils
where Genette
a vital
house,
has
such
role.

publishing
3 Ross
"Baudelaire's
Chambers,

played
Sub-stance
No. 2
Practice,"
56, 17,
(1988),
Dedicatory

5-17.
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----------------------- Page 8----------------------PRETEXTS
279
4

AND PARATEXTS

From the

of
dedication

David
Baudelaire's Le Salon de 1846, ed.

Kelle

y (Oxford,
1975).
5 See Marie Maclean, Narrative as
6

See

Grafts,
7 See
an

(London, 1988).
Performance
Anne Freadman, "Of Cats, Companions and the Name of George Sand," in
ed. Susan Sheridan (London, 1988),
125-57.
pp.
Ursula K. LeGuin's introduction to James
Star
Old
Tiptree, Jr.,
Song

s of
Primate

York,
(New

ix-x.
1978), pp.

8 This
The
s,

in his
shift is ironized
Life

Sterne
by

and

Tristram
Opinions

second order

parodic,
(Harmondsworth, 1967),

Chambers,

45-46.

Shandy
of

dedication

pp.
9.

p.
10
ironic
and their construction of the
"Narrative
On
dedications

see
narratee,

my

and the Gender Trap," AUMLA, 74 (1990), pp. 65-80.

11 On the model of Paul Alexis's famous 1891 telegram about the demise of
naturalism.
12 Genette,
8,
translation.
p.
my
13 Sterne,
207.
p.
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TC
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