ABSTRACT
Audience interpretation and engagement determine how the exposition creates the peritext::text connection, determined to large degree by lexical expertise, past experience, and prior knowledge of the story. Narrative exposition uses the dynamic between stylization and naturalism to create a clear distinction between title sequence and the rest of the motion picture it “credits.” The same pseudo-independence that defines the title sequence as a separate enunciation is productive of the titles as paratext that gives the motion picture narrative its apparent coherence as story.
