BOOK AS A THRESHOLD: PERITEXTS AND METALEPSIS IN TWO COLLECTIONS BY ROWLING AND LACOMBE/ PEREZ

Abstract

A common practice in children’s and young adult literature lies on the use of peritexts (Genette, 2001), signifying components that participate in the construction of meaning. Due to the increasing ubiquity of mobile devices and the emergence of digital texts and books, materiality and peritexts become the distinctive features of printed books. In this article we have selected a corpus of children’s books that integrate peritexts into fiction, and become playful objects through a narrative strategy that involves both intertextuality and metalepsis. First, we will analyze Benjamin Lacombe and Sébastien Perez´s collection of picture books entitled Généalogie d’une sorcière; then, we will examine three of J. K. Rowling’s companion books for the Harry Potter series, included in the Hogwarts Library series: Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Our purpose is to identify the narrative mechanisms that the peritexts involve, and to place within the production context of the digital age.