The Roman Paratext: Frame, Texts, Readers

Laura Jansen

Mar 2014 · Cambridge University Press

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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.

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Laura Jansen is Lecturer in Latin Language and Literature at the University of Bristol. Her work addresses the topic of liminality in various forms, especially those relating to issues of authoriality, editoriality and reception. On this theme, she has published articles on Ovidian paratextuality and its exegesis, and is currently completing a book on the question of the authorial frame in Latin literature.