BACK-COVER BLURBS AS MARKETING TOOLS:THE CASE OF FOREIGN LITERATURE GENRE BY NHA NAM PUBLISHER

Abstract

ABSTRACT

As book blurbs turn into a trendy subject for linguistic analysis, their promotional role gradually come to light. While researchers have considered the marketing purpose of blurbs into the realization of rhetorical structure and lexico-grammar features, few have touched upon the relation between these patterns and the context blurbs are situated in. Employing text-first approach in genre analysis and the framework of Gea-Valor (2005), the study is carried out as an attempt to explore typical patterns of back-cover blurbs in accordance with both the marketing purpose and the context of Vietnam. 86 blurbs in the genre of foreign literature by Nha Nam publishing house are selected to be examined. It turns out the majority of these blurbs comprise of 2 moves: description and evaluation (move of about the author is omitted compared with Gea-Valor’s model); the elaboration of description is more varied depending on the sub-genre and there is an inclination towards using publisher’s judgement rather than other sources’. As for linguistic features, a less direct complimenting technique and a preference of addressing form “we/us” over “you” suggest the cultural context of Vietnam.