Intertextuality

Intertextuality is one of the key terms in contemporary literary theory. 

On a fundamental level, the theory of intertextuality argues that texts (such as works of literature) are constructed from other, prior texts. A text can, for example, refer to, repeat, transform or even challenge previous texts. As such, a work of literature is positioned within a system of texts that have relations to each other (Culler 33). The notion that any new text is constructed as an absorption and transformation of another is one of the early ideas upon which the theory of intertextuality was built (Kristeva 66).

An example of intertextuality in the way of criticism of the established rhetoric, according to Jonathan Culler, can be found in Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”, as it purposefully denies the common metaphors used in love poetry: ‘I have seen roses damasked, red and white, but no such roses see I in her cheeks,’ (Culler 34).

Another famous example of intertextuality is James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses, as it parallels Homer’s Odyssey.

Works cited:

Culler, Jonathan. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 1997.

Kristeva, Julia. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art. Columbia University Press, 1980. 

Author of the page: Petr Eller