What is intertextuality? How does intertextuality challenge E.D. Hirsch’s idea that a text has a single meaning created by its author? Explain with reference to examples drawn from any media format.
According to American literary critic, E.D. Hirsch, in order to interpret a body of text, one must ask one’s self the only question that can be answered objectively – “what, in all probability, did the author mean to convey?” He believed that the author’s intended meaning equates the meaning of a text and it is in fact, the reader’s duty to uncover the the author’s intentions.
“The meaning of a text and its author’s intentions are one and the same.”
Hirsch’s concept revolves around the assumption that a body of text is original, and is
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someone watching a satirical television show such as The Simpsons).
The best example of this sort of intertextuality would be the process of a reader (or surfer) browsing the world wide web. Here, an author cannot control the way in which a reader approaches his or her body of text. There is seldom a linear fashion in which a reader consumes information while surfing the internet. It is common for him or her to absorb only small chunks of texts on one page of a website before being led to an entirely different webpage via links. Through surfing and following links of their choice, readers effectively thus begin to construct their own text of sorts as they make their way through various sites on the internet.
Unlike newspapers or most other forms of printed media, intertextuality on the internet is often one of a blatant and conscious nature. Here, almost more so than anywhere else, it is clear that content is not entirely original, nor is it based on an author’s sole ideas and concepts. It is common for a great many websites to host a multitude of links, and consist of short articles that link to other sources of information that the work was based on, or that provide further elaboration.
Even on
Reading and writing should be seen as interactive subjects rather than just reading or writing words on paper in ink. John Beans suggests that individuals should look at both reading and writing as conversations. In his article “Reading and Writing as Conversations” Bean states by envisioning yourself having a conversation with the author, referenced individuals, and characters, readers are more likely to better understand the text. Texts are seen as different conversations each text has a connection to another text. Such as if you were referencing a particular article,book,or quote in your text. Many people have a reason for reading different types of text. Some reasons could simply be because the individual wants to, needs to, discover new
The premise of Intertextuality, as explained in "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, is that 'anything you write is connected to other written things' (page 197, HTRLLAP). Using 'allusions and references and parallels' (page 31, HTRLLAP), all written works can be connected to another, rather it be poems, novels, movies, plays, etc. This is definitely true for Paulo Coelho's book "The Alchemist." Just one of the many intertexutual comparisons that can be made is with the book "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe. In "Things Fall Apart," the main character Okonkwo has a large fear of failure, one that the main character of "The Alchemist" Santiago shares. When the Alchemist forces Santiago to try to turn himself into
Authors write to be understood and to show others their beliefs. They want to color a picture for you in the words they are writing. John Steinbeck used word choice, parallelism, and foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men in the same way a great artist creates a scene.
Intertextuality is everywhere. Many texts, whether as a book or a movie, has a “connection” with each other. During class, we discussed many times on how one book relates to another. But what does all this work done in class have to do with anything in life or one’s future? A person may not know it, but the truth is, all these efforts are extremely helpful in one’s life. If they can make compare texts and see their association with one another, then he or she can make lots more assumptions on other various writings. This can be helpful if the person wants to understand the compositions that they are reading. As I was reading, I noticed that the writings shared a lot of the same perspectives and themes. These include the topics of vampirism,
On one hand, the author meant that “there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature,” because he described how authors are inspired by other pieces of writing as poems or even paintings to write their literary work. They shared similar themes, characters or even they can combine many of literary features into their own that is the reason why readers have to be attentive in asking themselves: “where have they seen that before?” (pg. 29) Is it true that in chapters 4, 5 and 6 Foster describes that literature is affected by intertextuality to a certain extent, for instance, when writers lay back by prominent figures as Shakespeare or the
Intertextuality is the ongoing interaction between poems or stories. Romeo and Juliet, and the Titanic are two examples
In chapter five, “When in Doubt, It’s from Shakespeare” talks about the reappearance of different well known figures in literature. Foster follows this by giving an idea that literature is made based on other literary stories. He states that one of the reasons why story borrowing occurs is because there is only one story and it’s the human experience. Book critics usually refer to the literary works and texts as ‘intertextually’. According to the author, intertextuality is sometimes used to challenge a reader. If the person reading the story can point out the similarities or repetitiveness in the text then the meaning will easily be revealed to them. In conclusion, being able to identify different meaning of literary text and analyze it gives
or genre of the text and purpose (Hill, 2012, p. 87) this would help John in the role of text
Intertextuality is the “ongoing interaction between poems or stories.” The “intertextual dialogue deepens and enriches the reading experience, bringing multiple layers of meaning to the text, some of which readers may not even consciously notice” (34). The book Siddhartha is related to the life of Buddha which is displayed through the plot through the characteristics of the characters, the doctrines, and specific objects that
“Intertextual dialogue deepens and enriches the reading experience, bringing multiple layers of meaning to the
In the process of writing, regardless of the form it takes, thesis or narrative for example, the purpose of the piece has several lenses that shape how the reader perceives the material. Of the less important lenses that shape the piece, mood, word choice, and rhetoric are only a few. These elements of the work, while minimal in a relative sense, accomplish the same as other, more important components, they influence how the reader perceives the material, how it is understood. If one is to effectively convey the message of the piece, one must first look at how the any reader perceives any text. This idea of how the reader perceives is a culmination of all the devices employed by the author. The idea is for the author to craft an aggregate
After reviewing the coding I completed for each book, I tallied up the results to see which lenses I most frequently and infrequently used. The results were that I analyzed the text through the literary lens in nineteen different books out of the twenty-five total (Petersen, 2016). In retrospect, I intermittently used the intertextual lens while reading. To be specific, I analyzed only five books out of the total twenty-five through this perspective (Petersen, 2016).
I have used just two examples of intertextuality with reference to names, but there are quite a few. From the example of William Wilson, we can see that by alluding to Poe's work, Auster used intertextuality to make reference to the doppelganger and also possibly to Poe's Detective Dupin stories. By heavily referencing his own name throughout the text Auster used intertextuality in a different way, by not referencing another work but referencing himself he added a completely different aspect to the story allowing for layering on many different
According to Iser, any literary text which is a product of the Writer’s intentional acts part-ly controls the response of a reader; however, this includes an abundance of gaps. In order to comprehend more clearly, the reader must take action in active participation in attempting to cre-atively fill these gaps with the given information of the test put before him; Thereby allowing the Reader and the text to undergo a transactional process.
Before the 20th Century, literature was pretty straightforward; the narrators were reliable, the timelines were linear, and the perspective was clear, but then somebody got the idea to mix it up. This is how we got books such as The Great Gatsby and one of our class texts, Orlando. For some, this was a startling and uncomfortable transition from what used to be considered the, “normal” format which was very up front in terms of structure and voice. Others found it to be more exciting and, while it was still weird and unsettling for those people, it forced people to think more about what the books were trying to communicate, instead of just being handed the message; they had to work for it. This has become one of the leading reasons that societies are encouraged to read; if you read a book that forces you to think, your mind becomes stronger and this promotes an increase in intelligence and creativity.