paratextn.
/ˈparətɛkst/, U.S. /ˈpɛrəˌtɛkst/ Literary Theory.
The textual and visual material that surrounds or supplements the main body of a published work, both as part of its physical format (the peritext, e.g. front cover, introduction, footnotes, etc.) and outside of this (the epitext, e.g. reviews, advertisements, interviews, etc.); such material considered together as a frame which contextualizes a text and informs its interpretation. Also: a piece or example of such material. See peritext n. and epitext n.Chiefly with reference to books, but also used in relation to films, computer games, and other media.In later use informed by the concepts of French literary theorist Gérard Genette (b. 1930).
ΚΠ
1974 Lit./Film Q. Spring 186 By ‘para-text’ I mean a text that in fact and by intention and design stands alongside another, and—as the prefix implies—is in some sense derived from the other.
1984 P. H. Mayhew Narr. Theory (Ph.D. diss., Princeton Univ.) ii. 49 Placed as paratext just before the beginning of the formal Chapter One..is a three-page italicized meditation entitled, ‘The Owner of the Voice’.
2000 B. Korte in B. Korte et al. Anthologies Brit. Poetry 20 ‘Peritext’ is a form of ‘paratext’, i.e. all those liminal devices that mediate a book to its readers. Another form of paratext, ‘epitext’, refers to mediating texts produced ‘outside’ the book itself.
2015 Yearbk. Eng. Stud. 45 137 They also furnished their editions with critical paratexts such as biographical memoirs, notes, glossaries and contextualizing prefaces.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1974