The Roman Paratext

What is a paratext, and where can we find it in a Roman text? What kind of space does a paratext occupy, and how does this space relate to the text and its contexts? How do we interpret Roman texts 'paratextually'? And what does this approach suggest about a work's original modes of plotting meaning, or the assumptions that underpin our own interpretation? These questions are central to the conceptual and practical concerns of the volume, which offers a synoptic study of Roman paratextuality and its exegesis within the broad sphere of Roman studies. Its contributions, which span literary, epigraphic and visual culture, focus on a wide variety of paratextual features - e.g. titles and inter-titles, prefaces, indices, inscriptions, closing statements, decorative and formalistic details - and other paratextual phenomena, such as the frames that can be plotted at various intersections of a text's formal organization.Introduction: approaches to Roman paratextuality Laura Jansen; 1. Crossing the threshold: Genette, Catullus, and the psychodynamics of paratextuality Duncan F. Kennedy; 2. Starting with the index in Pliny Roy Gibson; 3. The topography of the law book: common structure and modes of reading Matthijs Wibier; 4. Cicero's capita Shane Butler; 5. Tarda solacia: liminal temporalities of Statius' prose prefaces Grant Parker; 6. Inter-titles as deliberate misinformation in Ammianus Marcellinus Roger Rees; 7. Paratextual perspectives upon the SC de Pisone Patre Alison Cooley; 8. Paratext and intertext in the Propertian poetry book Donncha O'Rourke; 9. Pictorial paratexts: floating figures in Roman wall painting Herica Valladares; 10. The paratext of Amores 1: gaming the system Ellen Oliensis; 11. 'Sealing' the book: the sphragis as paratext Irene Peirano; 12. Paraintertextuality: Spenser's classical paratexts in The Shepheardes Calender Bruce Gibson; 13. Modern covers and paratextual strategy in Ovidian elegy Laura Jansen.