Cover not available

In: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

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 2
On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext

Punch magazine as a case study

ORCiD logo with link | Linnaeus University
ORCiD logo with link | Tampere University
Published online: 18 November 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.317.02tyr
Abstract
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.
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
References (52)
Primary sources
Punch corpus. 2018. Compiled by Jukka Tyrkkö (Linnaeus University), Turo Hiltunen (University of Helsinki) and Jenni Räikkönen (Tampere University).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Secondary sources
Altick, Richard. 1997. Punch: The Lively Youth of a British Institution, 1841–1851. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, Douglas. 1988. Variation across Speech and Writing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Birke, Dorothee, and Birte Christ. 2013. “Paratext and Digitized Narrative: Mapping the Field.” Narrative 21 (1): 65–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buszek, Maria E. 2006. Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture. Durham: Duke University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Beaugrande, Robert-Alain, and Wolfgang Dressler. 1981. Introduction to Text Linguistics. London and New York: Longman. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Frandsen, Finn. 1991. “Avisens paratekst – et nyt område for medieforskningen.” MedieKultur 16: 79–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardiner, Juliet. 2000. “‘What Is an Author?’ Contemporary Publishing Discourse and the Author Figure.” Publishing Research Quarterly 16 (1): 63–76. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Genette, Gérard. 1992 [in French 1979]. The Architext: An Introduction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1987. Seuils. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Hågvar, Yngve B. 2012. “Labelling Journalism. The Discourse of Sectional Paratexts in Print and Online Newspapers.” Nordicom Review 33 (2): 27–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K., and Ruqyua Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2001. Textual Interaction. An Introduction to Written Discourse Analysis. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H., and Irma Taavitsainen. 2013. English Historical Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Ledin, Per. 2000. Veckopressens historia: Del II [History of the weekly press: Part II]. Lund: Svensk sakprosa.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Lotman, Yuri. 1977. The Structure of the Artistic Text. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
McConchie, Roderick W., and Jukka Tyrkkö (eds). 2018. Historical Dictionaries in their Paratextual Context [Lexicographica. Series Maior]. Berlin: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McGann, Jerome J. 1991. The Textual Condition. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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 logo with link to Google Scholar
Pantaleo, Sylvia. 2017. “Paratext in Picturebooks.” In The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks, ed. by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, 38–48. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pellatt, Valerie (ed). 2013. Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Introduction.” In Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation, ed. by Valerie Pellatt, 1–8. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to 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 logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanitzek, Georg. 2005. “Texts and Paratexts in Media.” Critical Inquiry 32 (1): 27–42. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suhr, Carla. 2011. Publishing for the Masses: Early Modern English Witchcraft Pamphlets. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tavares, Sergio. 2015. “Paratextual Prometheus. Digital Paratexts on YouTube, Vimeo and Prometheus Transmedia Campaign.” International Journal of Transmedia Literacy 1: 175–195. Google Scholar logo with link to Google 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 logo with link to 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. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Włodarczyk, Matylda
2025. Orality in the History of English. In The New Cambridge History of the English Language, ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue