Text, Extratext, Metatext and Paratext in Translation

Book excerpt: This volume brings together research on a variety of paratextual and peritextual elements of translation of German, Chinese and Czech source texts. The explication seen as necessary to translated texts is a part of this growing field, as researchers investigate the influence of writing which purports to help the reader’s understanding of a text. The articles included here demonstrate the impact of paratextual and peritextual elements on the way a text is produced and received. Publishers, both consciously and unconsciously, may manipulate the presentation of a text to appeal to a certain readership, while writers of prefatorial, explanatory and critical material base their paratextual interpretation on their own perceptions and political leanings. The articles in the volume focus on significant literary texts, by writers such as Christa Wolf and Mao Zedong. Regional novels of Taiwan, modern and traditional poetry, and children’s stories are not exempt from the power of paratext, and some genres, such as the literary mystification texts published in the Czech Republic, are purposefully designed to mislead the reader. The articles in the volume help to dispel the notion that translation and the paratext which surrounds it, and of which it is a part, are innocent.