The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers
Cambridge University Press, 3/20/2014
EAN 9781107024366, ISBN10: 1107024366
Hardcover, 328 pages, 25.3 x 18 x 2 cm
Language: English
What is a paratext, and where can we find it in a Roman text? What kind of space does a paratext occupy, and how does this space relate to the text and its contexts? How do we interpret Roman texts 'paratextually'? And what does this approach suggest about a work's original modes of plotting meaning, or the assumptions that underpin our own interpretation? These questions are central to the conceptual and practical concerns of the volume, which offers a synoptic study of Roman paratextuality and its exegesis within the broad sphere of Roman studies. Its contributions, which span literary, epigraphic and visual culture, focus on a wide variety of paratextual features - e.g. titles and inter-titles, prefaces, indices, inscriptions, closing statements, decorative and formalistic details - and other paratextual phenomena, such as the frames that can be plotted at various intersections of a text's formal organization.
Introduction
approaches to Roman paratextuality Laura Jansen
1. Crossing the threshold
Genette, Catullus, and the psychodynamics of paratextuality Duncan F. Kennedy
2. Starting with the index in Pliny Roy Gibson
3. The topography of the law book
common structure and modes of reading Matthijs Wibier
4. Cicero's capita Shane Butler
5. Tarda solacia
liminal temporalities of Statius' prose prefaces Grant Parker
6. Inter-titles as deliberate misinformation in Ammianus Marcellinus Roger Rees
7. Paratextual perspectives upon the SC de Pisone Patre Alison Cooley
8. Paratext and intertext in the Propertian poetry book Donncha O'Rourke
9. Pictorial paratexts
floating figures in Roman wall painting Hérica Valladares
10. The paratext of Amores 1
gaming the system Ellen Oliensis
11. 'Sealing' the book
the sphragis as paratext Irene Peirano
12. Paraintertextuality
Spenser's classical paratexts in The Shepheardes Calender Bruce Gibson
13. Modern covers and paratextual strategy in Ovidian elegy Laura Jansen.