AustLit

‘This paper explores the critical function of the paratext that inscribes literary legitimation and value production and analyzes a transformed vision of the paratextual space in Australian Indigenous children's books. The paratext refers to a set of heterogeneous devices of a book such as a preface, a dedication, author's profile / back/front cover blurbs, and so forth, which serve to frame the text into a book and to justify the value of the text. Gerard Genette, in his seminal work Seuils (1997), conceives the paratext as a threshold of the book, which is "a zone between text and off-text, a zone not only of transition but also of transaction" (2). The paratext enables the trajectory of a text to be presented as a book, a self-promotional process that is invested with the power of literary legitimation to validate the desirability of the writer's work in the market. Though the paratext may be marginalized, neglected, or even disdained as gimmick making, the fringe of the book often accommodates a convergence of varying discourses and practices (Genette 2). The interlocking relations between different interest holders (such as writers, publishers, reviewers, implied readers, educational or awarding institutions) are reflected in the paratext, forming a network that enables a transformative process of what Pierre Bourdieu terms "social alchemy" in the production of cultural capital.’ (Introduction)