« Dans l'amitié du seuil » (Char)
"Within the friendship of the threshold" (Char)

Author(s): Christine DUPOUY
Subject(s): French Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Editura Junimea
Keywords: threshold; paratext; poem; surrealism; theatre;
Summary/Abstract: Abstract: The notion of “threshold” was theorized by Genette in 1987, and refers to what is commonly called “paratext” - that is, everything that surrounds the text as such, including the publishing presentation, the name of the author. When dealing with Char, we shall look at the many dedications, epigraphs, forewords and back covers which clearly appear in his books thanks to the use of italics and which typify his writing. One point, essential to Char, was apparently not studied by Genette: the latter obviously underlines the function of presentation of what we call foreword, short of a better definition, and which Char would rather name “argumentations” or ? (bandeau). Yet, according to us, these singular texts, in relation with what follows, also have a value of their own: they are poems in the full sense of the term. Such is the aspect which we wish to study in this paper, thereby restauring the full status of text to what has been called, a bit disparagingly, paratext.

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