http://www.marathonpacks.com/2010/03/paratexts/ someone warn the plains! Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:04:43 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.marathonpacks.com/2010/03/paratexts/comment-page-1/#comment-2698 Lawson Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:29:52 +0000 http://www.marathonpacks.com/?p=2276#comment-2698 I think the distinction between text and paratext is best approached in terms of that between text as 'meaning/form' and paratext as 'materiality' - or any form in which a text is instantiated. If you think of this way, it becomes clearer what the text is (the 'song' itself as a kind of autonomous entity) but that doesn't preclude the fact that a text is never actually realised until made by its various paratexts, therefore it is always clouded by them as Jenkins and yourself mention. Not just 'no text without context', but 'no text without paratext'. I think the distinction between text and paratext is best approached in terms of that between text as ‘meaning/form’ and paratext as ‘materiality’ – or any form in which a text is instantiated. If you think of this way, it becomes clearer what the text is (the ’song’ itself as a kind of autonomous entity) but that doesn’t preclude the fact that a text is never actually realised until made by its various paratexts, therefore it is always clouded by them as Jenkins and yourself mention. Not just ‘no text without context’, but ‘no text without paratext’.

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