Paratextuality 2.0: Updating Genette's Framework for Complex Game Systems

The paper argues that the concept of "paratext," borrowed from Gérard Genette's literary framework and widely adopted in game studies since Consalvo's 2007 introduction, has become so broadly applied to nearly every video game epiphenomenon, from manuals and patch notes to trailers and online discussions, that it has lost analytical precision. Its central claim is that the core problem lies in Genette's linking of a typology of textual relationships to a typology of texts, which causes ancillary materials to be treated as subordinate merely because of their relationship to a main work. Given the prominence of backstories and transmedia storytelling in contemporary games, the author contends that this hierarchy is anachronistic and proposes abandoning the term in favor of analyzing paratextuality as a relationship and its sources within texts, namely the links connecting texts and textual systems to social and historical context.

The argument draws on a review of prior critiques, including Lunenfeld's observation that backstories can matter more than narratives, Carter's and Jones's challenges to the spatial distinction between peritexts and epitexts, and Rockenberger's and Wolf's application of literary critiques to video games. The paper also notes scholars such as Johnston and Guins who sidestep the concept entirely. The work is conceptual and theoretical rather than empirical, so it reports no survey data, sample sizes, or quantitative findings; its methodology consists of close engagement with existing literature and theoretical reasoning.

The proposed reframing is illustrated with examples such as digital storefronts like Steam and console dashboards, where boundaries between peritextual and epitextual spaces are fluid. The author argues that this approach would require scholars to specify the precise sources of textual transcendence rather than relying on a vague notion of ancillary status, and would open analysis to other forms of intertextual and transtextual relationships. The scope is primarily the English-language and European academic discourse on digital games, centered on the 2007 to 2015 period of scholarship.