Paratexts in Translation. Nordic Perspectives

Abstract

Paratexts in Translation is dedicated to translation aspects relating to the concept of the paratext, which has been in vogue in translation studies over the last two decades. The term paratext was applied by the late French literary theorist Gérard Genette (1930‒2018) to refer to “those liminal devices and conventions, both within and outside the book, that form part of the complex mediation between book, author, publisher and reader: titles, forewords, epigraphs and publishers’ jacket copy are part of a book’s private and public history”. Since then, the definition of the paratext has been both expanded to include reviews and literary criticism as well as refined into the subdivisions of peritexts (i.e., material in same volume as the text, such as prefaces and footnotes), epitexts (i.e., elements outside the book, such as interviews with the author), metatexts (i.e., critical commentary), and extratexts (i.e., texts that can influence how a translation is produced or received).