{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T01:57:37Z","timestamp":1776391057310,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,17]],"date-time":"2020-12-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1608163200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JD"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,17]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this study is to provide a discussion on how to apply Genette's concept of the paratext to analyze digital documents. The article argues that the concept, despite its shortcomings, is useful because it gives us the terminology to analyze elements often ignored and overlooked.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>By taking G\u00e9rard Genette's concept of the paratext as point of departure, the paper focuses on three controversial issues in the scholarly work about paratext and digital documents: the division of paratext into peritext and epitext, the explosive growth of paratext and the question of authorization of text and paratext.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Questions related to the spatial division of the paratext into peritext and epitext, the difficulty of where to draw the line between text and paratext and the question of authorization are not new for digital documents but did already occur in the analog world. Even if many decisions like what to include and what to exclude in an analysis are left to the researcher, this does not mean that Genette's concept is unsuitable for digital documents. On the contrary, the concept gives us the terminology to analyze elements of often ignored and overlooked, also for digital documents.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>As a scholar in the humanities the author can only relate to and therefore analyze what the author can experience and observe on screen level.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-subheading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>In providing a discussion of digital documents and some of the controversial issues discussed by other researchers, this article shows the relevance of Genette's concept, also for our work with digital documents.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-06-2020-0106","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,15]],"date-time":"2020-12-15T11:47:06Z","timestamp":1608032826000},"page":"449-460","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["The paratext of digital documents"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"77","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3510-1296","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roswitha","family":"Skare","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref001","volume-title":"Cypertext. Perspectives on Ergodic Literature","year":"1997"},{"issue":"11","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1732","DOI":"10.1080\/1369118X.2017.1351575","article-title":"Critically assessing digital documents: materiality and the interpretative role of software","volume":"21","year":"2018","journal-title":"Information, Communication and Society"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref003","unstructured":"Appollon, D., B\u00e9lisle, C. and R\u00e9gnier, P. (2014), \u201cIntroduction. As texts become digital\u201d, in Appollon, D., B\u00e9lisle, C. and R\u00e9gnier, P. (Eds), Digital Critical Editions, University of Illionois Press, Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield, pp. 1-32."},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"43","DOI":"10.1386\/btwo_00019_1","article-title":"Hyperparatextuality: meaning-making in the digital reading frame","volume":"10","year":"2020","journal-title":"Book 2.0"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"88","DOI":"10.1353\/nar.2013.0004","article-title":"Bootleg paratextuality and digital temporality: towards an alternate present of the DVD","volume":"21","year":"2013","journal-title":"Narrative"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref006","volume-title":"Digital Humanities. Knowledge and Critique in a Digital Age","year":"2017"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref007","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.1353\/nar.2013.0003","article-title":"Paratext and digitized narrative: mapping the field","volume":"21","year":"2013","journal-title":"Narrative"},{"issue":"4","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref008","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"673","DOI":"10.1215\/03335372-24-4-673","article-title":"Gadamer and the mechanics of culture","volume":"24","year":"2003","journal-title":"Poetics Today"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref009","unstructured":"Burk, D.L. (2010), \u201cCopyright and paratext in computer gaming\u201d, in Wankel, C. and Malleck, S. (Eds), Emerging Ethical Issues of Life in Virtual Worlds, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, North Carolina, pp. 33-53."},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref010","unstructured":"Cronin, B. (2014), \u201cForeword. The penumbral world of the paratext\u201d, in Desrochers, N. and Apollon, D. (Eds), Examining Paratextual Theory and its Applications in Digital Culture, IGI Global, Hershey, Pennsylvania, pp. xv-xix."},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref011","volume-title":"Examining Paratextual Theory and Its Applications in Digital Culture","year":"2014"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref012","unstructured":"Dijk, V.Y. (2014), \u201cThe margins of bookishness: paratexts in digital literature\u201d, in Desrochers, N. and Apollon, D. (Eds), Examining Paratextual Theory and Its Applications in Digital Culture, IGI Global, Hershey, Pennsylvania, pp. 24-45."},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref013","volume-title":"Paratexts. Thresholds of Interpretation","year":"1997"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref014","volume-title":"Popular Media Cultures: Fans, Audiences and Paratexts","year":"2015"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref015","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gray, J. (2015), \u201cAfterword: studying media with and without paratxts\u201d, in Geraghty, L. (Ed.), Popular Media Cultures: Fans, Audiences and Paratexts, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 230-237.","DOI":"10.1057\/9781137350374_12"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref016","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hayler, M. (2016), \u201cMatter matters: the effects of materiality and the move from page to screen\u201d, in Griffin, G. and Hayler, M. (Eds), Research Methods for Reading Digital Data in the Digital Humanities, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 14-35.","DOI":"10.1515\/9781474409629-003"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref017","volume-title":"Writing Machines","year":"2002"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref018","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.1353\/yale.2003.0018","article-title":"Translating media: why we should rethink textuality","volume":"16","year":"2003","journal-title":"The Yale Journal of Criticism"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref019","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"67","DOI":"10.1215\/03335372-25-1-67","article-title":"Print is flat, code is deep: the importance of media-specific analysis","volume":"25","year":"2004","journal-title":"Poetics Today"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref035","volume-title":"Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide","year":"2006"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref020","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1353\/nar.2015.0004","article-title":"The paratext of fan fiction","volume":"23","year":"2015","journal-title":"Narrative"},{"issue":"5","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref021","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"734","DOI":"10.1108\/00220411011066817","article-title":"Document, text and medium: concepts, theories and disciplines","volume":"66","year":"2010","journal-title":"Journal of Documentation"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref022","unstructured":"Lunenfeld, P. (2000), \u201cUnfinished business\u201d, in Luhnenfeld, P. (Ed.), The Digital Dialectic: New Essays on New Media, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 6-23."},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref023","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.1353\/nar.2013.0005","article-title":"Expanding Genette's epitext\/peritext model for transitional electronic literature: centrifugal and centripetal vectors on kindles and iPads","volume":"21","year":"2013","journal-title":"Narrative"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref024","volume-title":"American Showman. Samuel \u201cRoxy\u201d Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry","year":"2012"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref025","volume-title":"Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History","year":"2005"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref026","volume-title":"The Politics of Ephermeral Digital Media: Permanence and Obsolescence in Paratexts","year":"2016"},{"issue":"2","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref027","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1086\/694067","article-title":"ThingsMaterial turn, transnational turn","volume":"31","year":"2017","journal-title":"American Art"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref028","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.15581\/003.30.1.165-182","article-title":"Paratextual activity: updating the Genettian approach within the transmedia turn","volume":"30","year":"2017","journal-title":"Communication and Society"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref029","first-page":"107","article-title":"Rethinking the paratext: digital story-mapping E. Pauline Johnson's and Chief Joe and Mary Capilano's Legends of Vancouver (1911)","year":"2018","journal-title":"BC Studies: The British Columbian Quarterly"},{"issue":"1","key":"key2021021707072285700_ref030","article-title":"Paratext \u2013 a useful concept for the analysis of digital documents?","volume":"6","year":"2019","journal-title":"Proceedings from the Document Academy"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref031","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Skare, R. (2020), \u201cParatext\u201d, in Hj\u00f8rland, B. and Gnoli, C. (Eds), Encyclopedia of Knowledge Organization, available at: https:\/\/www.isko.org\/cyclo\/paratext.","DOI":"10.5771\/0943-7444-2020-6-511"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref032","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Caldwell, J.T. (2011), \u201cCorporate and workers ephemera: the industrial preomotional surround, paratexts and workers blowback\u201d, in Grainge, P. (Ed.), Ephemeral Media: Transitory Screen Culture from Television to YouTube, Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 175-194.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-349-88356-1_11"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref033","volume-title":"Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other Media Paratexts","year":"2010"},{"key":"key2021021707072285700_ref034","unstructured":"Mittel, J. (2013), \u201cSerial orientations: paratexts and contemporary complex television\u201d, in Eckel, J., Leiendecker, B., Olek, D. and Piepiorka, Ch. (Eds), (Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes, Transcript, Bielefeld, pp. 165-182."}],"container-title":["Journal of Documentation"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/JD-06-2020-0106\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/JD-06-2020-0106\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T22:34:19Z","timestamp":1753396459000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/jd\/article\/77\/2\/449-460\/432250"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,17]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,17]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/JD-06-2020-0106"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/jd-06-2020-0106","relation":{},"ISSN":["0022-0418"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0022-0418","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,12,17]]}}}