{"id":1555,"date":"2024-11-11T21:48:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T02:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1555"},"modified":"2024-11-11T21:48:51","modified_gmt":"2024-11-12T02:48:51","slug":"paratext-presenting-the-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/11\/11\/paratext-presenting-the-author\/","title":{"rendered":"Paratext & Presenting the Author"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the article \u201cThe Paratext and Literary Narration: Authorship, Institutions, Historiographies,\u201d Florian Sedlmeier, an Assistant Professor at Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, explores the concept of paratext. Over the weekend I was browsing the databases for any additional texts on paratext that might be a better fit for my project and came across this piece. What drew me to this article initially was how the title promised discussion of paratext in relation to both authorship and narration, topics which I thought would be interesting when looking at <\/span>The Princess Bride.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While discussing authorship, Sedlmeier brings up a quote from Genette that explains how paratext acts as commentary from the author of the piece (67). <\/span>I think this idea is interesting given how Goldman acts as the abridger of the novel because every note he has explaining he edits to the \u201coriginal\u201d text is based on his own opinion and perspective. Sedlmeier also introduces Genette\u2019s concept of \u201cautographic paratexts,\u201d which are paratexts specifically attributed to the author (prefaces, titles, epigraphs, etc.)\u00a0(69). In the article, Sedlmeier and Genette present paratext as a kind of link between the author, the text and literary historiography. This being said, Sedlmeier doesn\u2019t explore how paratext could be used to mislead readers and spread misinformation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As stated earlier, <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i> does display aspects of paratext that Sedlmeier describes in the article, but it also uses paratext to create an illusion of reality. In the introduction, notes and epigraph of the novel, Goldman talks about Florin and Guilder as if they were real places with lengthy histories. Paratexts also complicate Goldman\u2019s connection with the text because while his own opinions are explicitly stated in some paratext, the S. Morgenstern pseudonym that Goldman writes the novel under and his constant claim to being only the abridger in other paratextual elements limit his connection to the original piece. This divide between Goldman and the text also complicates my previous ideas regarding escapism because if <\/span>The Princess Bride<\/span><\/i> is supposed to be Goldman\u2019s way of escaping reality, why does he try to distance himself from it by hiding behind a pseudonym? Or does Goldman\u2019s escape lie in the paratexts where he takes on a narratorial role and becomes part of the story in that sense?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sedlmeier, Florian. \u201cThe Paratext and Literary Narration: Authorship, Institutions, Historiographies.\u201d <\/span>Narrative<\/span><\/i>, vol. 26, no. 1, 2018, pp. 63\u201380. <\/span>JSTOR<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/26405564<\/span><\/a>. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the article \u201cThe Paratext and Literary Narration: Authorship, Institutions, Historiographies,\u201d Florian Sedlmeier, an Assistant Professor at Freie Universit\u00e4t Berlin, explores the concept of paratext. Over the weekend I was browsing the databases for any additional texts on paratext that might be a better fit for my project and came across this piece. What drew … Continue reading Paratext & Presenting the Author<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}