- Epigraph (literature)
In
literature , an epigraph is a phrase,quotation , orpoem that is set at the beginning of a document or component. The epigraph may serve as a preface, as a summary, as a counter-example, or to link the work to a wider literary canon, either to invite comparison or to enlist a conventional context.Examples
The long quotation from Dante's "Inferno" that prefaces
T. S. Eliot 's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock " is part of a speech by one of the damned animals in Dante's Hell. Linking it to the monologue which forms Eliot's poem adds a comment and a dimension to Prufrock's confession. The epigraph to Eliot's "Gerontion" is a quotation from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure ".The epigraphs to the preamble of
Georges Perec 's "" ("La Vie mode d'emploi") and to the book as a whole warn the reader that tricks are going to be played and that all will not be what it seems.The epigraph to
E. L. Doctorow 's "Ragtime" quotesScott Joplin 's instructions to those who play his music, "Do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play "Ragtime" fast." This stands in contrast to the accelerating pace of American society at the turn of the 20th century.Some authors use fictional quotations that purport to be related to the fiction of the work itself. For example,
Stephen King 's "Misery" has epigraphs taken from the fictitious novels written by the protagonist;Jasper Fforde 's "The Eyre Affair " has quotations from supposedly future works about the action of the story. Some science fiction authors (Isaac Asimov 's "Foundation Trilogy " andFrank Herbert 's "Dune" series are examples) are fond of using quotations from an imagined future history of the period of their story. This can be seen as a way of claiming authenticity for a work of the imagination.ee also
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Prologue
*Incipit Bibliography
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John Barth "The Friday Book" (1984) pp.xvii-xviii
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