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Mallarme's Un Coup de Dis, Apollinaire's Calligrammes, Dadaism, Futurism, Concrete
Poetry and the typographical experiments of postmodem authors, OUT being one of
them. The visual side of written language is used together with the textual meaning ,
sometimes confirming, sometimes contradicting it. Computer writing emphasises the
materiality of the text and makes it a concern not only for a minority of (literary) artists,
but a common feature oftext-composition.
Similar to the ideal of traditional typography, a dominance of textual over visual message
can be observed where visual material is used explicitly in the form of illustration,
graphics or photos included in the text. In an article on children's literature, Margaret R.
Higonnet refers to what she calls the 'peritext' of a book (in reference to Genette) as
"peripheral features such as the cover, titlepage, table of contents, chapter titles,
epigraphs, postface, and above all, illustrations.?» The peritext serves usually merely as a
background for the text, is hierarchically subordinate to it, but is, as Higonnet argues
"throw{n] in the foreground in children's Iiterature'vwhere the brevity of the actual text
puts a much greater emphasis on the non-textual elements than usual. Illustrations are a
vital part of children's books, and can, as is the case in picture books for the very young,
even substitute the text completely, pop-up books introduce kinetic elements with their
movable parts, others are oddly shaped or have holes and flaps behind which surprises
are hidden - a whole range of creative uses of peritextual elements that support the
textual message of the book as well as being story elements in their own right. They
make the book attractive to their readership and encourage children to read and explore
not only the narrative but also the book as an object.
Jerome McGann follows a similarline ofargument, albeit not in the context of children's
books but of illustrated artists' books. In his research on Blake's illustrated poetry and
William Morris' book art he uses the metaphor of the double-helix to suggest that
linguistic (the text) and bibliographic features (the peritext) are mutually expressive and
informing. These books are works ofvisual art as well as literary texts, their illustrations
are not merelydecorative but an integralpart ofthe text -reproduced without, they lose a
43 Margaret R. Higonnet,"The Playground ofthe Peritext" Children's Literature Association Quarterly,
V,I5 n.z (Summer 1990), P.47.
44
Iibid I . P.47.
Chapter 6 - page 223