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The Dynamics of Text and Framing Phenomena: Historical approaches to paratext and metadiscourse in English
Edited by Matti Peikola and Birte Bös
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 317] 2020
► pp. 209–229

Chapter 9
Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts

ORCID logo | University of Turku

This chapter focuses on book producers’ metadiscourse related to text-organisation in 16th-century English printed paratexts. Paratexts offered authors, translators, and printers a convenient space for instructing the reader in navigating the contents of the book at hand. Choices related to text-organisation were occasionally highlighted on the title-page and described in more detail in prefaces or letters to the reader. In this chapter, I examine title-pages and prefaces to find out how book producers justified and clarified their methods of structuring text and information and whether text-organisation was used as a selling point in the early period of print in England.

Keywords: Early Modern English, paratext, metadiscourse, book history, text-organisation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metadiscourse and paratext
  • 3.Text-organisation in 16th-century print
  • 4. The present study
  • 5.Text-organisation on title-pages
    • 5.1References to the organisation of the main text
    • 5.2References to paratext
  • 6.Text-organisation in prefaces
    • 6.1Developing the paratextual frame
    • 6.2Text-critical comments
  • 7. Conclusion
  • Primary sources
  • Secondary sources
Published online: 18 November 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.317.09var
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