Renaissance Paratexts
Renaissance Paratexts
In his 1987 work Paratexts, the theorist Gérard Genette established physical form as crucial to the production of meaning. Here, experts in early modern book history, materiality and rhetorical culture present a series of compelling explorations of the architecture of early modern books. The essays challenge and extend Genette's taxonomy, exploring the paratext as both a material and a conceptual category. Renaissance Paratexts takes a fresh look at neglected sites, from imprints to endings, and from running titles to printers' flowers. Contributors' accounts of the making and circulation of books open up questions of the marking of gender, the politics of translation, geographies of the text and the interplay between reading and seeing. As much a history of misreading as of interpretation, the collection provides novel perspectives on the technologies of reading and exposes the complexity of the playful, proliferating and self-aware paratexts of English Renaissance books.
- Draws together recent work in the field of book history with a range of other areas, including literary criticism, cultural history, translation and gender studies, appealing to readers from a range of disciplines
- Extends and challenges Genette's analysis of the physical forms of the book through diverse and fresh perspectives by leading figures in the field
- Generously illustrated throughout, allowing readers to see the material forms of early modern books
Reviews & endorsements
'… this is a terrific volume that should be read by anyone interested in any aspect of early modern literature.' SEL Studies in English Literature
Product details
November 2014Paperback
9781107463424
290 pages
230 × 152 × 15 mm
0.42kg
39 b/w illus. 2 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Helen Smith and Louise Wilson
- Part I. Orders of the Book:
- 1. 'Imprinted by Simeon such a signe': reading early modern imprints Helen Smith
- 2. 'Intended to offenders': the running titles of early modern books Matthew Day
- 3. Changed opinion as to flowers Juliet Fleming
- 4. The beginning of 'The End': terminal paratext and the birth of print culture William H. Sherman
- Part II. Making Readers:
- 5. Editorial pledges in early modern dramatic paratexts Sonia Massai
- 6. Status anxiety and English Renaissance translation Neil Rhodes
- 7. Playful paratexts: the front matter of Anthony Munday's Iberian Romance translations Louise Wilson
- 8. 'Signifying, but not sounding': gender and paratext in the complaint genre Danielle Clarke
- Part III. Books and Users:
- 9. Unannotating Spenser Jason Scott-Warren
- 10. Reading the home: the case of The English Housewife Wendy Wall
- 11. Pictures, places and spaces: Sidney, Wroth, Wilton House and the Songe de Poliphile Hester Lees-Jeffries
- Afterword Peter Stallybrass
- Select bibliography.
