Paratextuelle Strategien in Benjamin Steins Roman "Die Leinwand "

The striking layout of Benjamin Stein’s novel Die Leinwand (Engl. Transl.: The Canvas) which has no front and back cover but two front covers, deliberately breaks with the conventions of the peritext and thus irritates the reader. Only gradually does the reader understand that the volume contains two separate stories, each beginning on one side and meeting in the middle, which the reader is supposed to read sequentially or simultaneously, switching from one to the other. In other words, the peritext suggests that this novel is a hypertext in which the authorial function tends to disappear, whereas the reader is assigned a productive role in generating meaning. This idea is then further reinforced in a new form of epitext, i.e., on Stein’s literary blog «Turmsegler». Although the blog provides a form of communication that is interactive by definition, the role of the reader remains rather passive, while the author, declared dead in the peritext, celebrates his return. Not only is he always present with his posts, but he also em- barks on a game to confuse the reader, not only about the facts and fictions of the narrative but also about his own constructed identity.