Cover not available
Part of
The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena: Historical approaches to paratext and metadiscourse in English
Edited by Matti Peikola and Birte Bös
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 317] 2020
► pp. 33–62

Chapter 2
On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext

Punch magazine as a case study

ORCID logo | Linnaeus University
ORCID logo | Tampere University

Originally introduced in literary theory, Gerard Genette’s concept of paratext has been increasingly adopted in historical linguistics as a collective term for features other than the so-called ‘body text’. While this development and the renewed attention to these features is welcome, we argue that Genette’s original concept has been simplified and at least partly misrepresented in the linguistic context. Using a newly compiled corpus of Punch magazine as our primary data, we discuss how and why the two constituent terms of paratext, peritext and epitext, can be useful in the linguistic context. More specifically, we demonstrate that when considered from a diachronic perspective, the interactions between the concepts may afford new insights into textual interpretation.

Keywords: paratext, peritext, epitext, interaction, Punch magazine
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Theoretical background
    • 2.1Defining text
    • 2.2Paratext and linguistic analysis
  • 3. Punch magazine
    • 3.1 Punch, or the London Charivari
    • 3.2Creating the Punch corpus
    • 3.3Distribution of content types
  • 4.The peritextual and epitextual features of Punch magazine: Two examples
    • 4.1The cartoons
    • 4.2Mr. Punch
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Primary sources
  • Secondary sources
Published online: 18 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.317.02tyr
References

Primary sources

Punch corpus
2018 Compiled by Jukka Tyrkkö (Linnaeus University), Turo Hiltunen (University of Helsinki) and Jenni Räikkönen (Tampere University).Google Scholar

Secondary sources

Altick, Richard
1997 Punch: The Lively Youth of a British Institution, 1841–1851. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar
Appelbaum, Stanley, and Richard M. Kelly
1981 Great Drawings and Illustrations from Punch, 1841–1901: 192 Works by Leech, Keene, Du Maurier, May and 21 Others. Dover: Courier Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Åström, Frederik
2014 “The Context of Paratext: A Bibliometric Study of the Citation Contexts of Gérard Genette’s Texts.” In Examining Paratextual Theory and its Applications in Digital Culture, ed. by Nadine Desrochers, and Daniel Apollon, 1–23. Hershey: IGI Global. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, Douglas
1988 Variation across Speech and Writing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Birke, Dorothee, and Birte Christ
2013 “Paratext and Digitized Narrative: Mapping the Field.” Narrative 21 (1): 65–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bös, Birte
2015 “Conceptualisations, Sources and Agents of News: Key Terms as Signposts of Changing Journalistic Practices.” In Changing Genre Conventions in Historical English News Discourse, ed. by Birte Bös, and Lucia Kornexl, 25–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Buszek, Maria E.
2006 Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture. Durham: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Ruth, Matti Peikola, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila, Janne Skaffari, and Risto Hiltunen
2013 “Pragmatics on the Page: Visual Text in Late Medieval English Books.” European Journal of English Studies 17 (1): 54–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Beaugrande, Robert-Alain, and Wolfgang Dressler
1981 Introduction to Text Linguistics. London and New York: Longman. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diller, Hans-Jürgen
2002 “Genre vs. Text Type: Two Typologies and Their Usefulness for the Newspaper Reader.” In Text Types and Corpora, ed. by Andreas Fischer, Gunnel Tottie, and Hans M. Lehman, 1–17. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
Eggert, Paul
2009 “The Book, the E-text and the ‘Work-site’”. In Text Editing. Print and the Digital World, ed. by Marilyn Deegan, and Kathryn Sutherland, 63–82. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Frandsen, Finn
1991 “Avisens paratekst – et nyt område for medieforskningen.” MedieKultur 16: 79–97.Google Scholar
Gardiner, Juliet
2000 “ ‘What Is an Author?’ Contemporary Publishing Discourse and the Author Figure.” Publishing Research Quarterly 16 (1): 63–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Genette, Gérard
1992 [in French 1979] The Architext: An Introduction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
1987 Seuils. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
1997 Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Green, Johanna
2014 “ ‘On þe nis bute chatering’: Cyberpragmatics and the Paratextual ‘Anatomy’ of Twitter.” In Texts and Discourses of New Media [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 14], ed. by Jukka Tyrkkö, and Sirpa Leppänen. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
Hågvar, Yngve B.
2012 “Labelling Journalism. The Discourse of Sectional Paratexts in Print and Online Newspapers.” Nordicom Review 33 (2): 27–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K., and Ruqyua Hasan
1976 Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hoey, Michael
1986 “The Discourse Colony: A Preliminary Study of a Neglected Discourse Type”. In Talking about Text. Studies Presented to David Brazil on His Retirement, ed. by Malcolm Coulthard, 1–26. Birmingham: Birmingham Instant Print Ltd.Google Scholar
2001 Textual Interaction. An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H., and Irma Taavitsainen
2013 English Historical Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Juhl Rasmussen, Anders
2015 “Genre and Paratext.” In Genre and … [Copenhagen Studies in Genre 2], ed. by Sune Auken, Palle Schantz Lauridsen, and Anders Juhl Rasmussen, 125–153. Valby: Ekbátana.Google Scholar
Kytö, Merja, and Terry Walker
2014 “Features of Layout and Other Visual Effects in the Source Manuscripts of An Electronic Text Edition of Depositions 1560–1760 (ETED).” In Texts and Discourses of New Media [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 14], ed. by Jukka Tyrkkö, and Sirpa Leppänen. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
Ledin, Per
2000 Veckopressens historia: Del II [History of the weekly press: Part II]. Lund: Svensk sakprosa.Google Scholar
Lee, David Y. W.
2001 “Genres, Registers, Text Types, Domains and Styles: Clarifying the Concepts and Navigating a Path through the BNC Jungle.” Language Learning and Technology 5 (3): 37–72.Google Scholar
Liira, Aino, and Sirkku Ruokkeinen
2019 “Material Paratext Studies: Redefining the Concept of Text in Light of Manuscript Evidence.” Anglicana Turkuensia 33: 111–134.Google Scholar
Lotman, Yuri
1977 The Structure of the Artistic Text. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Machan, Tim William
2011 “The Visual Pragmatics of Code-Switching in Late Middle English Literature”. In Code-Switching in Early English, ed. By Herbert Schendl, and Laura Wright, 303-333. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maidment, Brian
2013 “The Presence of Punch in the Nineteenth Century.” In Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair, ed. by Hans Harder, and Barbara Mittler, 15–46. Springer Science & Business Media. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McConchie, Roderick W.
2014 “Some Reflections on Early Modern Printed Title-Pages.” In Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing and Annotation of Diachronic Data [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 12], ed. by Anneli Meurman-Solin, and Jukka Tyrkkö. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
McConchie, Roderick W., and Jukka Tyrkkö
(eds) 2018 Historical Dictionaries in their Paratextual Context [Lexicographica. Series Maior]. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGann, Jerome J.
1991 The Textual Condition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meurman-Solin, Anneli
2013 ”Taxonomisation of features of visual prosody”. In Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing and Annotation of Diachronic Data [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 12], ed. by Anneli Meurman-Solin, and Jukka Tyrkkö. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
Meurman-Solin, Anneli, and Jukka Tyrkkö
(eds) 2013 Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing and Annotation of Diachronic Data. Helsinki: Varieng. [URL]
Moxon, Joseph
1677 Mechanick Exercises: Or, The Doctrine of Handy-works. Applied to the Compositors Trade, Vol. II. London. Wing M3013.Google Scholar
Pantaleo, Sylvia
2017 “Paratext in Picturebooks.” In The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks, ed. by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, 38–48. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peikola, Matti
2013 “Guidelines for Consumption: Scribal Ruling Patterns and Designing the Mise-en-Page in Later Medieval England.” In Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe 1350-1550: Packaging, Presentation and Consumption, ed. by Emma Cayley, and Sue Powell, 14–31. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar
2015 “Manuscript Paratexts in the Making: British Library MS Harley 6333 as a Liturgical Compilation.” In Discovering the Riches of the Word: Religious Reading in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. by Sabrina Corbellini, Margriet Hoogvliet, and Bart Ramakers, 44–67. Leiden: Brill. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pellatt, Valerie
(ed) 2013 Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
2013 “Introduction.” In Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation, ed. by Valerie Pellatt, 1–8. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Ratia, Maura
2014 “Investigating Genre through Title-Pages: Plague Treatises of the Stuart Period in Focus.” In Texts and Discourses of New Media [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 14], ed. by Jukka Tyrkkö, and Sirpa Leppänen. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
Ratia, Maura, and Carla Suhr
2017 “Verbal and Visual Communication in Title Pages of Early Modern English Specialised Medical Texts.” In Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Text, ed. by Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila, and Janne Skaffari, 67–93. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rockenberger, Annika
2014 “Video Game Framings.” In Examining Paratextual Theory and its Applications in Digital Culture, ed. by Nadine Derochers, and Daniel Apollon, 252–286. Hershey: IGI Global. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shevlin, Eleanor
1999 “ ‘To Reconcile Book and Title, and Make ’em Kin to One Another’: The Evolution of the Title’s Contractual Functions.” Book History 2: 42–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stanitzek, Georg
2005 “Texts and Paratexts in Media.” Critical Inquiry 32 (1): 27–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Suhr, Carla
2011 Publishing for the Masses: Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar
2018 “News and Relations: Highlighted Textual Labels in the Titles of Early Modern News Pamphlets.” In Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English, ed. by Peter Petré, Hubert Cuyckens, and Frauke D’hoedt, 41–60. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tavares, Sergio
2015 “Paratextual Prometheus. Digital Paratexts on YouTube, Vimeo and Prometheus Transmedia Campaign.” International Journal of Transmedia Literacy 1: 175–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tyrkkö, Jukka, Marttila, Ville, and Carla Suhr
2013 “The Culpeper Project: Digital Editing of Title-Pages.” In Principles and Practices for the Digital Editing and Annotation of Diachronic Data [Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English 12], ed. by Anneli Meurman-Solin, and Jukka Tyrkkö. Helsinki: Varieng.Google Scholar
Varila, Mari-Liisa, Hanna Salmi, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Janne Skaffari, and Matti Peikola
2017 “Disciplinary Decoding: Towards Understanding the Language of Visual and Material Features.” In Verbal and Visual Communication in Early English Texts, ed. by Matti Peikola, Aleksi Mäkilähde, Hanna Salmi, Mari-Liisa Varila, and Janne Skaffari, 1–20. Turnhout: Brepols. DOI logoGoogle Scholar