Understanding Intertextuality: Theory and Literary Practice

Understanding Intertextuality

Texts are co-dependent, integrated within a system of traditions, codes, images, and structures. A text is always connected to other texts, aesthetic forms, cultural images, and signs. The act of reading involves accessing a network of textual relations; therefore, textual exegesis is an exercise in interpreting those relations—the text as intertext.

Origins and Theoretical Foundations

The term first appeared in the work of Julia Kristeva in the mid-1960s, drawing upon the work of Mikhail Bakhtin in essays such as The Bounded Text and Word, Dialogue, Novel. The original meaning of 'text' is 'tissue' or 'interwoven fabric' (Barthes).

Intertextuality involves a reconceptualization of the notions of authorship, authority, and authenticity. It challenges the idea that a text can be read in only one way or that there is a single 'correct' interpretation. The foundations of modern intertextual theory are rooted in the works of Saussure, Bakhtin, and Kristeva.

Julia Kristeva and the Organic Text

Julia Kristeva (b. 1941) introduced and assimilated the concept of 'intertextuality' into modern theory. She views the text as an intertext where extractions from previous works remain vibrant. Like Bakhtin, Kristeva conceives the text as linked to the social and cultural textuality from which it cannot escape.

The 'intertext' should not be regarded as a mere compilation of sources or influences; the cultural text is not merely background or context, but a live, organic part of the intertext. The text functions as practice and productivity, remaining active and revealing tensions between different ideologies. Because the text lacks a final, stable meaning, it serves to present and expose the conflict over the meaning of words. Consequently, the text does not exist outside its interpretation and re-interpretation. Kristeva’s theory has had a tremendous influence on feminism, postcolonialism, and Marxist readings.

Intertextual Techniques

• Compression: The shortening of events, the conflation of characters, or the suppression of specific elements.
• Expansion: The addition or emphasis of details and scenes.
• Purging: The removal of aspects considered unnecessary, weak, or distracting.
• Updating: Modifying elements to appeal to current semiotics and cultural sensibilities.
• Intertextual Emphasis: References to semiotic imports brought by actors or images, or self-signifying references that a postmodern product makes to its own artificial nature.