Text – paratext: author’s strategies and meanings

The article is devoted to the study of the role of paratext in the literary process and to the identification of authorial strategies implemented through the system of peritextual and epitextual elements. Drawing on the concept of G. Genette, paratext is considered the most important mediator between the text and the reader, capable of shaping not only the initial perception but also the long-term interpretation of the work. Such forms of peritext as titles, epigraphs, the structure of collections, compositional markers, as well as visual design (covers, typographic and graphic solutions) are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the epitext – interviews, reviews, scientific interpretations, and other forms that provide additional meanings and construct the cultural status of the work. In Belarusian literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, paratext acquires significance not as a secondary accompaniment but as an active element of artistic communication, capable of setting a conceptual framework and guiding receptive practices. It is emphasized that through paratextual strategies, authors shape cultural-identification models, actualize historical memory, and create a metapoetic dimension of creativity. Thus, paratext appears not as a marginal, but as a system-forming category that defines the interaction of text, author, and reader in the literary process. Ultimately, paratext can be viewed as a dynamic space of meanings, where the artistic and the cultural interact in a mode of constant dialogue.

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