intertextuality
Literary cross-referencing network
Intertextuality is the web of connections between texts—the way any piece of writing exists in dialogue with others through allusion, quotation, parody, or shared conventions.
A novel that echoes Biblical language, a film that references earlier films, a poem responding to another poem: all demonstrate intertextuality.
The concept, from literary theory, suggests no text stands alone; meaning emerges partly through relationship to other texts the reader knows.
The novel's intertextuality with Greek mythology rewards careful readers.
Work referencing its own form
- BakhtinCarnival concept scholar
- polyphonySimultaneous independent melodic lines
- palimpsestReused writing surface, traces remain
- semioticsStudy of signs, symbols
Genette · structuralism · poststructuralism · deconstruction · hermeneutics · reader-response · postmodernism · metafiction
Reflected sound wave
- resonanceAmplified oscillation at natural frequency
- referenceDirecting attention elsewhere
- quotationCited passage or price
- parodySatirical imitation
pastiche · homage · tribute · nod · callback · borrowing · appropriation · recontextualization
Cited passage or price
- parodySatirical imitation
- pasticheImitative artistic tribute
- satireMockery exposing vice
- bricolageConstruction from available materials
collage · montage · juxtaposition · fragmentation · layering · embedding · framing · mirroring
Point of origin
- influencePower to affect others
- precursorSomething that comes first
- successorOne who replaces another
- lineageDescent from progenitors
tradition · canon · genre · archetype · motif · trope · convention · formula
Interpreting written text
- significationExpressed or intended meaning
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
- resonanceAmplified oscillation at natural frequency
- depthDistance below surface
layering · ambiguity · multiplicity · plurality · openness · richness · dialogue · interplay
metatextuality
Work referencing its own form
- BakhtinCarnival concept scholar
- polyphonySimultaneous independent melodic lines
- palimpsestReused writing surface, traces remain
Genette · semiotics · structuralism · poststructuralism · deconstruction · hermeneutics · reader-response · postmodernism · metafiction
echo
Reflected sound wave
- resonanceAmplified oscillation at natural frequency
- referenceDirecting attention elsewhere
- quotationCited passage or price
parody · pastiche · homage · tribute · nod · callback · borrowing · appropriation · recontextualization · citation
quotation
Cited passage or price
bricolage · collage · montage · juxtaposition · fragmentation · layering · embedding · framing · mirroring · paralleling
source
Point of origin
lineage · tradition · canon · genre · archetype · motif · trope · convention · formula · hypertext
reading
Interpreting written text
- significationExpressed or intended meaning
- connotationImplied sense, not dictionary
- resonanceAmplified oscillation at natural frequency
depth · layering · ambiguity · multiplicity · plurality · openness · richness · dialogue · interplay · negotiation
intertextualityself-containment
State of internal completeness
originality · hermeticism · insularity · self-sufficiency · primary source
text, context, texture, interpretation, textile, pretext, subtext, textual, interconnection