Gérard Genette Biography

Genette was instrumental in reintroducing a rich vocabulary of rhetorical terms, such as trope and metonymy, into literary criticism. His foundational work on narrative theory, notably "Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method," has been highly influential in shaping how we analyze stories. Through his multi-part "Figures" series and his trilogy exploring textual transcendence, he provided critical frameworks that continue to resonate. Although his work is often discussed in secondary analyses rather than studied in isolation, concepts like 'paratext' and 'hypotext' originating from his scholarship have become widespread tools for literary interpretation.