Chapter 4. Threshold-switching
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Wendy Scase
Abstract
This chapter offers a new, material analysis of medieval scribal colophons, the brief writings that scribes added to manuscript texts. Gérard Genette saw the scribal colophon as the ancestor of ‘paratext’, the ‘threshold’ (‘seuil’) to the printed text. Contributing to current modification of paratext theory, this chapter considers what Genette’s model reveals about manuscript culture. It proposes that the scribal colophon turns the spotlight on the graphic properties of the scribe’s work rather than simply or predominantly serving as a threshold to reading the text. The chapter proposes that threshold-switching, a term in digital electronics for a process that causes oscillation between one state and another, may be a more appropriate metaphor than the threshold for this important function of the medieval scribal colophon. The colophon is evidence that, as in digital media today, in manuscript culture writing was not regarded simply as a transparent medium that one looked through to access the meaning beyond.
Abstract
This chapter offers a new, material analysis of medieval scribal colophons, the brief writings that scribes added to manuscript texts. Gérard Genette saw the scribal colophon as the ancestor of ‘paratext’, the ‘threshold’ (‘seuil’) to the printed text. Contributing to current modification of paratext theory, this chapter considers what Genette’s model reveals about manuscript culture. It proposes that the scribal colophon turns the spotlight on the graphic properties of the scribe’s work rather than simply or predominantly serving as a threshold to reading the text. The chapter proposes that threshold-switching, a term in digital electronics for a process that causes oscillation between one state and another, may be a more appropriate metaphor than the threshold for this important function of the medieval scribal colophon. The colophon is evidence that, as in digital media today, in manuscript culture writing was not regarded simply as a transparent medium that one looked through to access the meaning beyond.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
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Part I. Conceptualisations of text and framing phenomena
- Chapter 1. Framing framing 3
- Chapter 2. On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext 33
- Chapter 3. The footnote in Late Modern English historiographical writing 63
- Chapter 4. Threshold-switching 91
- Chapter 5. Framing material in early literacy 115
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Part II. Framing and audience orientation
- Chapter 6. Paratext and ideology in 17th-century news genres 137
- Chapter 7. “All which I offer with my own experience” 163
- Chapter 8. “I write not to expert practitioners, but to learners” 187
- Chapter 9. Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts 209
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Part III. Form and layout in framing
- Chapter 10. Paratextual features in 18th-century medical writing 233
- Chapter 11. Recuperating Older Scots in the early 18th century 267
- Chapter 12. Paratext, information studies, and Middle English manuscripts 289
- Index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
-
Part I. Conceptualisations of text and framing phenomena
- Chapter 1. Framing framing 3
- Chapter 2. On the dynamic interaction between peritext and epitext 33
- Chapter 3. The footnote in Late Modern English historiographical writing 63
- Chapter 4. Threshold-switching 91
- Chapter 5. Framing material in early literacy 115
-
Part II. Framing and audience orientation
- Chapter 6. Paratext and ideology in 17th-century news genres 137
- Chapter 7. “All which I offer with my own experience” 163
- Chapter 8. “I write not to expert practitioners, but to learners” 187
- Chapter 9. Book producers’ comments on text-organisation in early 16th-century English printed paratexts 209
-
Part III. Form and layout in framing
- Chapter 10. Paratextual features in 18th-century medical writing 233
- Chapter 11. Recuperating Older Scots in the early 18th century 267
- Chapter 12. Paratext, information studies, and Middle English manuscripts 289
- Index 309
