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"Renaissance Paratexts reveals the importance of investigating the particular paratextual conventions in play in different historical periods. As Genette makes clear, some paratexts 'are as old as literature; others came into being - or acquired their official status, after centuries of 'secret life' that constitute their prehistory - with the invention of the book; others, with the birth of journalism and the modern media' (14). A number of the paratexts we listed at the beginning of this introduction are strikingly modern, particularly those made possible by computer technologies. Others, including the author interview and the review, developed alongside the periodical industry from the eighteenth century onwards. A few are much older than the printed codex. Most, however, came into being in the period with which this volume is concerned, following the invention of printing in around 1436, and the corresponding development of the book into the forms which are familiar to us today"--Provided by publisher.
List of contents
Introduction Helen Smith and Louise Wilson; Part I. Orders of the Book: 1. 'Imprinted by Simeon such a signe': reading early modern imprints Helen Smith; 2. 'Intended to offenders': the running titles of early modern books Matthew Day; 3. Changed opinion as to flowers Juliet Fleming; 4. The beginning of 'The End': terminal paratext and the birth of print culture William H. Sherman; Part II. Making Readers: 5. Editorial pledges in early modern dramatic paratexts Sonia Massai; 6. Status anxiety and English Renaissance translation Neil Rhodes; 7. Playful paratexts: the front matter of Anthony Munday's Iberian Romance translations Louise Wilson; 8. 'Signifying, but not sounding': gender and paratext in the complaint genre Danielle Clarke; Part III. Books and Users: 9. Unannotating Spenser Jason Scott-Warren; 10. Reading the home: the case of The English Housewife Wendy Wall; 11. Pictures, places and spaces: Sidney, Wroth, Wilton House and the Songe de Poliphile Hester Lees-Jeffries; Afterword Peter Stallybrass; Select bibliography.
About the author
Helen Smith is Lecturer in Renaissance and Early Modern Literature at the University of York. She has published widely on early modern textual culture and is currently completing a monograph, Grossly Material Things: Women and Textual Production in Early Modern England. She is Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded project, 'Conversion Narratives in Early Modern Europe'.Louise Wilson is a Research Associate at the University of St Andrews, where she works on the MHRA Tudor and Stuart Translations series. She was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva, working on Lukas Erne's forthcoming Shakespeare and the Book Trade. Louise has published on the paratexts and readerships of romance, and is currently completing a monograph entitled Humanism and Chivalric Romance in Tudor England.
