Paratext and the Making of YA Fiction Genre: The Repoussoir

ABSTRACT

This paper is premised on the assumption that Young Adult Literature (YAL) is a relatively new development in Kenya, having been neglected both in research and production of books that promote the Young Adult Fiction (YAF) genre. The genre has been overshadowed by adult literature and, often, submerged in and or mistaken for children literature, thus denying its existence. I argue that the book as a material object, invites a symbiotic relationship between itself and all other discourses surrounding the text. With reference to Gerard Genette’s paratextual model, I examine how repoussoir, an element of paratext at the epitextual zone, has been exploited in selected YAF produced from 2005 to 2015 to evince YAL in Kenya. Repoussoir demonstrates its significance as a functional tool that aids in the texts’ identification, definition and presentation. It mediates between the eye of a book’s customer and the internal text that the entire book purposes to deliver. Consequently, repoussoir stands out as a cardinal material parameter that contributes to the formation of the text, advertising it, masking and / or cueing its meaning.

KEYWORDS:

• Kenyan literature
• young adult fiction
• repoussoir
• paratext
• epitext
• book covers

Acknowledgment

This article is part of my PhD thesis completed at the University of the Witwatersrand under the supervision of Professor Isabel Hofmeyr of the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

I am grateful to the Managing Directors of the following publishing houses for granting me permission to use their copyrighted materials:

Kenya Literature Bureau: publishers and printers and authors Stephen Mugambi Walk with Me Angela and Argwings Otieno A Taste of Fame.

Longhorn Publishers PLC and author Athony Mugo Never Say Never.

Moran Publishers and author Edward Mwangi The Delegate.

ORCID

Jane Wangari Wakarindi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9650-6599