7 2. PARATEXT: DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION
In this chapter I will elaborate my definition of paratext. Using Genette’s work, I will extend his insights to paratext in translation, especially in Bible translation. A description of
characteristics and functions of paratext will be given. My focus and examples will be in the area of Bible translations.
2.1 Definition
In this study I use the following definition of paratext: Paratext consist of all information representing elements that are added to a text by an author, editor or translator in order to
materialize the text into a specific publication.
Some elements of this definition need further explanation. I use the words ‘information representing elements’ because paratext has not only the form of text in letters or
numbers; paratext can also consist of illustrations, punctuation, blank lines, paragraph division, and of what can be called the materiality of the text Philippe Lane
9
or the bibliographical codes Jerome McGann:
10
its material and visual form that it receives through paper, typeface, design, ink, etc.
11
Although it seems obvious, it might be good to state explicitly what ‘text’ is. I follow the Concise Oxford Dictionary that defines text in its primary meaning as follows: “a written
9
Philippe Lane, La périphérie du texte Paris: Nathan, 1992, 17.
10
Jerome J. McGann, The Textual Condition, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, 13. McGann misunderstands Genette where he states that for Genette paratext is exclusively linguistic. He gives a valuable
insight though in stating that literary works typically secure their effects by other than purely linguistic means. It is the deployment of a double helix of perceptual codes: linguistic and bibliographical.
11
Genette also distinguishes what he calls factual paratext, that not consists of an explicit message, but of a fact of which the mere existence, if known, contributes some commentary to the text and influences its reception, for
example: age or sex of the author, Genette, Paratexts, 7.
8 or printed work regarded in terms of content rather than form.” But also its secondary
meaning is relevant: “the main body of a book or other piece of writing, as distinct from appendices and illustrations, etc.”
The words ‘author’ and ‘translator’ in the definition can refer to a single person or to a group or team. And in the reference to an ‘editor’, I include all activities that are part of the
process of editing a text, preparing it for publication and publishing it. The distinction between author, editor and translator in the production of paratext,
leads to a further distinction between auctorial paratext, editorial paratext and translational paratext. Auctorial information is produced by an author and can include for example the title
of the publication, a dedication, chapter titles and footnotes. Editorial paratext is produced by an editor and can include for example cover, dust cover and typeface. Translational paratext is
produced by a translator and can include for example an introduction and footnotes discussing the translation. The distinction between auctorial paratext and editorial paratext was
introduced by Genette in his book Seuils.
12
In this book he did not include the study of paratextual phenomena in translations, although he was aware of the implications of
translation for paratext.
13
Another distinction made by Genette is the distinction between two types of paratext: peritext and epitext. The term ‘peritext’ is composed of the term ‘text’ and the prefix ‘peri’,
from the Greek preposition , ‘about, concerning’ or ‘around, about, near’. Genette uses
the term to refer to all paratext that is found together with the text within the same
12
Genette, Seuils, 14. The English translation of Seuils translates ‘paratexte éditorial’ with ‘publisher’s paratext’ Paratexts, 9. However, the first published translation of Chapter 1 of Seuils translates ‘editorial paratext’ See
Gérard Genette, ‘Introduction to the Paratext’, in New Literary History, Vol. 22:2 1991, 266. It shows the difficulty of translating the French term ‘éditorial’ into English; it can refer to both an editor and a publisher.
In speaking of the “author and his allies” Genette gives the dominant position to the author Paratexts, 2. He goes as far as stating that in principle allographic notes that in no way involve the responsibility of the author,
fall outside the definition of paratext, Paratexts, 337.
13
See Genette, Paratexts, 405. The first serious study of paratext in literary translation was done by Urpo Kovala in ‘Translations, Paratextual Mediation and Ideological Closure’ in: Target: International Journal of
Translation Studies 8:1 1996, 117-147.
9 publication. The term ‘epitext’ is composed of the term ‘text’ and the prefix ‘epi’, from the
Greek preposition , ‘at, near, by, in addition to’, thus referring to anything added to a
text.
14
Genette uses this term to refer to all paratext that is not found together with the text within the same publication. Examples of epitext are press releases about the book,
advertisements and interviews with the author. Genette summarizes with the formula: paratext = peritext + epitext.
15
Combining the distinction between auctorialeditorialtranslational paratext with the distinction between peritext and epitext brings the further distinction between
auctorialeditorialtranslational peritext and auctorialeditorialtranslational epitext. An example of auctorial epitext is a quote from an author in an interview about his publication, an
example of editorial epitext is a text in a catalogue promoting a publication, and an example of translational epitext is an article in which a translator explains how a specific translation
problem was solved. In my definition of paratext I have limited myself to what Genette calls the peritext, in
speaking of “all … elements that are added to a text … in order to materialize the text into a publication.” Genette and others consider paratext all elements that surround and
accompany a book or publication. This has to do with the primary position he gives to the author and his allies in controlling and producing the paratext and so influencing the
potential readers of the text. I see an important distinction between what is added to a text and what is –so to speak– added to a book. In Genette’s formula: paratext = peritext around
the text + epitext around the book.
16
I would like to reserve the term paratext for what Genette calls peritext and not use the term paratext for the epitext.
17
14
Den Hollander, Schmid and Smelik, Paratext and Megatext, ix, define ‘megatext’ as “a container term for all textual artifacts that, textually, help make sense of the text.”
15
Genette, Paratexts, 5.
16
Compare Lane, La périphérie du texte, 17.
10 Although various elements of the epitext certainly might influence various readers in
their perception of a text as far they are confronted with it, epitext is not studied here. I am limiting myself to the paratext in the publication, the paratext that presents itself to all readers.
Finally, I used the expression ‘specific publication’. Texts are sometimes published in various editions. Editions might vary in the paratext they include. Therefore a distinction
between the various editions of a book is necessary. Each has its own intrinsic characteristics.
18
A clear example is given by the various editions of the Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling NBV in Dutch, by various publishers. One cannot speak of ‘the NBV and its
paratext’ in general, only of the paratext of one of the various editions.
2.2 Paratext in translations
