Rivista | Armeniaca
Fascicolo | 2 | 2023
Articolo | Shaping Readerly Taste
Shaping Readerly Taste
Paratextuality in the Publishing Mission of Mxit‘ar of Sebastia
Abstract
Making use of theoretical insights from ‘history of the bookʼ scholarship, this paper examines the way in which Mxit‘ar of Sebastia made use of paratexts (title pages, frontispieces, dedications, epigraphs, prefaces, illustrations, headings, epilogues, appendices, etc.) in his ‘publishing mission’ (to use Sahak Čemčemean’s appelation) to shape readerly taste and influence the way in which his books were read, received, and interpreted. Through introductory poems, illustrations, and playful word games, he presented himself as a second Maštoc‘ and his own students like the famous fifth-century disciples of that vardapet, who were meant to transmit and create in the same Armenian Christian literary tradition, under the aegis of the Roman Catholic Church.
Presentato: 03 Marzo 2023 | Accettato: 12 Maggio 2023 | Pubblicato 22 Novembre 2023 | Lingua: en
Keywords Mxit‘ar of Sebastia • Reader response • Mxit‘arist congregation • History of the book • Paratextuality
Copyright © 2023 Jesse Arlen. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/arm/2974-6051/2023/01/006
