Symbolism 15 : [Special Focus – Headnotes, Footnotes, Endnotes]

Yearbook While paratexts – among them headnotes, footnotes, or endnotes – have never been absent from American literature, the last two decades have seen an explosion of the phenomenon, including (mock) scholarly footnotes, to an extent that they seem to take over the text itself. In this Special Focus we shall attempt to find the reasons for this astonishing development. In our first (diachronic) section we shall explore such texts as might have fostered the present boom, from fictions by Edgar Allan Poe to Vladimir Nabokov to Mark Z. Danielewski. The second (synchronic) section, will concentrate on paratexts by David Foster Wallace, perhaps the “father” of the post-postmodern footnote, as well as those to be found in novels by Bennett Sims, Jennifer Egan and Junot Diaz, among others. It appears that, while paratexts definitely point to a high degree of self-reflexivity in the author, they equally draw attention to the textual and authorial functions of the works in which they exist. They can thus cause a reflection on the boundaries between genres like fiction, faction, and autobiography, as well as serving to highlight a host of pedagogical and social concerns that exist in the interstices between fiction and reality.

While paratexts – among them headnotes, footnotes, or endnotes – have never been absent from American literature, the last two decades have seen an explosion of the phenomenon, including (mock) scholarly footnotes, to an extent that they seem to take over the text itself. In this Special Focus we shall attempt to find the reasons for this astonishing development. In our first (diachronic) section we shall explore such texts as might have fostered the present boom, from fictions by Edgar Allan Poe to Vladimir Nabokov to Mark Z. Danielewski. The second (synchronic) section, will concentrate on paratexts by David Foster Wallace, perhaps the “father” of the post-postmodern footnote, as well as those to be found in novels by Bennett Sims, Jennifer Egan and Junot Diaz, among others. It appears that, while paratexts definitely point to a high degree of self-reflexivity in the author, they equally draw attention to the textual and authorial functions of the works in which they exist. They can thus cause a reflection on the boundaries between genres like fiction, faction, and autobiography, as well as serving to highlight a host of pedagogical and social concerns that exist in the interstices between fiction and reality.

Table of Contents Foreword from the Editors Special Focus: Headnotes, Footnotes, Endnotes. Reflections on the Margins of the Literary Text. Corresponding editors: Patrick O’Donnell and Heide Ziegler Patrick O’Donnell and Heide Ziegler Introduction: Headnotes, Footnotes, Endnotes. Reflections on the Margins of the Literary Text I. Undermining Authority, Power, and Dominance Poe, Annotation, and the Other Headnotes and Endnotes in the African American Sonnet Páginas en blanco, Footnotes, and the Authority of the Archive in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao II. Diluting Mainstream Constraints Too Much Fun – Endnotes in Infinite Jest Paratextualized Forms of Fictional Self-Narration: Footnotes, Headnotes and Endnotes in Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad “Only a Book”: Reading the Footnotes in House of Leaves III. Creating Another Voice for the Self The Novel as Note: Pale Fire and its Aftermath Headnotes, Footnotes, Subliminal Notes in “Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky” and The Kraus Project General Section The Visible Remainder: Curtis White’s Memories of My Father Watching TV Classicism, Cultural Mobility, Hybridity, and the Transnational Imagination in the Works of Reginald Shepherd List of Contributors Index This volume concentrates on the recent explosive development of paratexts in contemporary American literature and attempts to find the reasons by placing it within cultural and literary traditions. It will appear that the employment of such paratexts in "the late age of print" serves new purposes: the vertical and horizontal movements they demand across the material page draw attention to specific authorial concerns with textuality and authorship Focuses on the explosive development of paratexts in contemporary American literature and attempts to find the reasons by placing it within cultural and literary traditions.