Theory-historical reflection seems to begin in prefaces and epilogues. The aim is often to introduce one's own or another work into new contexts, to prevent misunderstandings or 'misinterpretations' and to undertake self-historicisation. The same applies to other paratexts such as titles, blurbs, dedications and mottos, as well as accompanying and supplementary texts such as interviews, reviews and the like. They, too, are intended to guide reception and develop different effects in new contexts. The peculiarities of such pre- and post-imposed texts have not yet been systematically examined by researchers, but they play a decisive role in understanding the transfer, circulation, global effectiveness and 'connectivity' of theory.

Entitled Paratexte der Theorie (Berlin Universities Publishing, 2025), the latest collected volume co-edited by Michael Gamper and Wolfgang Hottner (both Research Area 4: Literary Currencies) explores the general affordances and concrete effects of paratexts on the circulation of theory on the basis of exemplary questions, constellations, authors, genres and texts, always asking about the various ways in which theory is transferred and unfolds significance for literature and the humanities.

The book is a publication by the EXC 2020 project Circulations of Theory: Topics, Processes, and Histories of a Globalised Form of Writing. It evolved out of a call for papers inspired by the project's inaugural workshop in June 2023. Paratexte der Theorie is the second volume in the open-access series Edition AVL. 

Contributions by Cluster members (Research Area 4: Literary Currencies)

Drawing on the example of Michel Foucault, Michael Gamper illustrates the point that edited collections exert a significant influence on the formation of theory – indeed, it could well be argued that it is the curating practices of editors and publishers that turn texts into 'theory' in the first place ("Wie aus Texten 'Theorie' wird. Foucault und seine Sammelausgaben").

Based on Hans Blumenberg's exuberant introductory text to an early edition of Galileo Galilei's Sidereus Nuncius, Florian Fuchs traces Blumenberg's equally anticipatory and retrospective publication strategy while highlighting the interconnectedness of theoretical work and paratextuality in the philosopher's oeuvre ("Theorieteleskopie um 1965. Blumenbergs Galilei-Einleitung als paratextuelle Ermöglichung von Theorie"). Oliver Simons investigates how Hannah Arendt's and Judith Butler's English prefaces to Franz Fanon's Les damnés de la terre problematised or attempted to build upon Jean-Paul Sartre's ambivalent foreword to the original edition ("Fortschreibende Gewalt. Fanon, Sartre, Arendt, Butler").

Wolfgang Hottner's contribution shows that translations not only produce paratextual elements, but that these latter can also be lost in the process of transferring a text into another language: Citing the example of seemingly dispensable visual and paratextual elements in Roland Barthes' La chambre claire, he demonstrates that they actually convey an important religious-theological facet of Barthes' theory of photography ("Zeitpunkte. Über religiöses Beiwerk in Roland Barthes' La chambre claire").