Abstract

In this talk I will focus on paratexts such as prefaces, introductions, book covers, titles, etc. in literature from South Asia. In keeping with Gérard Genette's approach, paratexts can be conceptualized as thresholds to the texts that channel their reception. One may also think of them as wrappings that serve to hand over a piece of textual information or message to an audience.

Paratexts are usually not studied in a comprehensive manner. By taking a comparative look at a seizable corpus of paratexts, one gains an understanding of "how to do things with texts", and catches glimpses of their social history. In addition, I hope, the talk will manage to make this focus on paratexts fruitful for our larger concerns with issues like canonization, modernization and genre during the Beirut Summer School.

Discussant: Stefan Leder (Orient-Institut Beirut)

The public lecture is part of the Summer Academy “Language, Science and Aesthetics – Articulations of Subjectivity and Objectivity in the Modern Middle East, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia”, which takes place from 11 - 19 September 2014 in Beirut.

It is jointly organized by Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB) and Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin.

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