The dramaturgic paratext. Towards the definition of an issue

Abstract

The article considers an issue of the paratext formulated by J.-M. Tomasso and G. Genette. The monograph “Thresholds” by Gerard Genette is built as a detailed analysis of each of the possible paratextual elements accompanying the text. Genette describes each of the elements through the definition of its functional, local and temporal features. He also formulates the initial postulate of the paratext unity with the text itself.

The drama, in contrast to the narrative, deals with the speech of characters themselves and the author puts his comments only in paratext (in the title, remarks, the list of characters, the nomination of characters before the replica, in the rubric division). So paratext is a semantic core of the drama and it is often in it that the basic attitudes of perception are formed.

The main issues raised in the article are the correlation of the two levels of dramaturgic text and the distinguishing constitute parts of paratext, the terminological discussions around the concept of paratext. There are a number of concepts in Russian literary criticism for denotation the paratext of a dramatic work: didaskalia, stage directions, a framework text, a subject sphere in drama, forms of authorial presence. The use of the term “paratext” instead of the others means not only a description of the formal structure of the work by dividing it into text and behind-text elements, but also the correlation of the two components, and the purpose of their impact on the recipient.