Rolls, Alistair / Vuaille-Barcan, Marie-Laure (eds), Masking Strategies. Unwrapping the French Paratext

Alistair Rolls / Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan (eds), Masking Strategies, Unwrapping the French Paratext, Oxford 2011. VIII, 194 pp., 2 tables Modern French Identities. Vol. 92 Edited by Peter Collier. SBN 978-3-0343-0746-8

CHF 55.00 / €(D) 41.60 / €(A) 42.80 / € 38.90 / £ 35.00 / US-$ 58.95
 

Gérard Genette’s seminal study of the paratext, “Seuils” (1987), is the starting point for this collection of essays, all of which seek not only to engage with Genette’s taxonomy and apply it, but also to interrogate it and to move through and beyond it. In addition to mapping Genette’s organization of (para)textual space onto a number of French texts, including novels and plays, texts translated into French, book series and publishing marketing material, these essays take up some of the challenges raised in “Seuils” as well as posing their own. For example, the relationship between Genette’s work and deconstructionist approaches to text and the intersection of paratextuality and translation, which are hinted at by Genette, are explored in more detail in the volume, as is the notion of moving through and beyond the paratext. As such, this book offers a significant re-engagement with and deployment of paratextual theory and practice.

Contents:

Alistair Rolls/Murray Pratt: Introduction: Unwrapping the French Paratext – David Gascoigne: Paratext Rules OK – Gemma Le Mesurier: Reading Against the Author: Layers of Impotence in Stendhal’s “Armance” – Alistair Rolls: The Striptease at the Dead Heart of Douglas Kennedy’s “Piège nuptial”, Or How to be a bit French around the Edges – Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan: Douglas Kennedy, or an American in Paris: Paratextual Strategies and ‘Acclimatization’ of the Translated Text – Murray Pratt: ‘Un jeu avec le je’: Frédéric Beigbeder and the Value of the Authorial Paratext – Hélène Jaccomard: The Paratext of Yasmina Reza’s « Art »: Overflowing the Image – Jean Fornasiero/John West-Sooby: Covering up: Translating the Art of Australian Crime Fiction into French – Françoise Grauby: Writing (Learning about): French Writing Manuals and the Peritext – Alistair Rolls/Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan: Paratextuality, Self-Alterity and the Becoming-Text.

Alistair Rolls is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His work has focused principally on twentieth-century French literature, including Boris Vian, Existentialism and crime fiction. With Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan he is currently working on an analysis of the translation of Australian crime fiction into French.

Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests include translation theory and second-language acquisition.