The content that appears on the spine of a book is a paratext.
Although the notion of paratext is not part of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , its use is frequent in the field of linguistics . Paratext is known as those messages, postulates or expressions that complement the main content of a text. Its purpose is to provide more information about the work in question and organize its structure.
The title and subtitles of a book are considered paratexts, as are a prologue , dedications , an index , marginal notes and other statements. These paratexts are created by the author himself.
Content written by the author or the publisher
Suppose an author writes a 120-page novel about a boy who wanted to visit the Moon . On all those pages he develops his story : apart from that, it includes paratexts such as the title ( "Dreams that escape from the world" ), subtitles ( "The birth of an illusion" , "Preparations for flight" ) and a dedication ( "To my wife"). Fátima and my children Romeo and Luis” ).
The publisher, on the other hand, can also include paratexts, independently of those included by the author himself. This is how texts appear on the flaps ( "John Kuclick, born March 18, 1940, is an American author who began his literary career when he was 18 years old..." ), the spine ( "Dreams that escape the world, by John Kuclick ” ) and in other sectors of the book.
Paratext in research and technical works
When the work in question is research , it is common for the author to mention the sources consulted in the bibliography . It is also likely that, if the book is technical in nature, a glossary will be presented. Both sections (bibliography and glossary) are part of the paratextual elements.
Paratext can appear in different parts of a printed work.
The paratext opens the doors to the analysis and criticism of the discourse, as well as its expansion or synthesis through notes and prologues that complement the main message. On the other hand, its presence somehow compensates for the absence of the receiver at the time of writing, which means that an exchange of ideas cannot take place during reading.
One of the functions of paratext is to guide the reader to ensure effective reading. In technical texts, for example, it is normal to indicate through small annotations which section should be consulted to delve deeper into a certain topic, or to include images that help understand the content.
Elements that compose it
Within the paratext it is possible to recognize elements of a factual, iconic and material type; Some authors consider that the last two belong to the same class, which they simply call iconic paratext , of which graphics and illustrations are part, which are clearly differentiated from the verbal components of the factual paratext. Other classifications include the concepts of peritext (surrounds the main text but is in the book) and epitext (is outside the boundaries of the book).
The structure of the peritext, whose definition coincides with the idea generally held of the paratext itself, contains information that can be written by the author himself or by his editor (authorial or editorial peritext , respectively). Normally, the author takes care of the paratext that seeks to improve the understanding of the text, while the editor generates the content related to the advertising aspects of the book.
The epitext is a type of paratext that can be used to promote a book, as is the case with the material disseminated by publishers to anticipate a launch: reports, presentations, reviews in various media, posters and catalogues. Although the function of the epitext is different from that of a graph or a note within a book, it is still content related to it, since its objective is to capture the public's attention and direct it to its pages.