Order 1142774: Read Instructions
tutorthammy
week5slides1.pptxLANG 2005
Intertextuality
Dr Sue Page
What is intertextuality?
How does it work?
Intention and effect
What does it bring to a story?
Why does it matter?
Focus Points:
‘between stories’
Stories bounce off each other – their form, genre, allusions, symbolism, events, archetypes, patterns of story, types of actions and responses, character relationships …
Can also directly reference other stories or events
What is Intertextuality?
Builds on a reader’s cultural and literary knowledge
Adds layers of meaning because it resonates with prior experiences of narrative:
‘literary echoes’
Can be serious:
Discourse = series of deliberate choices in order to create certain effects on readers
Intertextuality = element of discourse deliberately used by authors to create literary echoes
BUT can be unconscious – author has embedded knowledge and reproduces same (eg, genre conventions)
Can be overt
Eg: movie Easy A directly references the 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn
Context: studying it at school (familiar scenario for us all, so we can recognise it because of our own experience)
Basic plot outlined by protagonist
Original novel: historical social realism AND romance
Setting: Puritan community in Boston, 1642-1649
Protagonist = Hestor Prynne punished for sexuality (had child due to affair)
Public humiliation
Forced to wear ‘scarlet letter’ A (for ‘adulteress’)
Refuses to name father
Isolated from community
Easy A (start of plot)
Some of the key themes:
Sin
Consequences
Gender inequalities
Punishment
Repentance
Conflict with community / social expectations
Independence
Loyalty
Redemption
Easy A / Scarlet Letter
One ‘echo’: The Bible
The Biblical version
Adam and Eve
Eve bears the blame; Adam seen as victim
Couple expelled from Eden
The Scarlet Letter version
Hester Prynne
Male adulterer not punished
Hester condemned for breaking rules
Isolated from community
Biblical elements cntd
Bible
Scarlet Letter
Learned shame and awareness of sin – human imperfection
Followed the rules
Children ‘acted out’
One child (Abel) murdered, one expelled (Cain)
Meant to learn shame
Came to own conclusions
Daughter, Pearl, acts out
Threat she’ll be taken from Hester
Can be implicit: (eg, pattern of romance genre: Girl meets boy; girl loses boy; girl finds boy again)
couple in The Scarlet Letter find each other; forced apart; man finally goes public; buried together
Couple in Easy A together as children (early crush); stay apart through circumstances; man goes public; couple end together
Intertextuality:
Romeo and Juliet
Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
Twilight
Cinderella
All different, all the same
Other examples of romance genre pattern:
Not much:
Fits pattern of traditional romance
Recognisable setting (school)
Teenage characters; teenage intended audience
Plot briefly outlined
Rom com – but also questions social more re: sexuality / virginity
How much do we need to know about novel in order to understand / enjoy film?
Film can stand alone
Much richer experience with prior knowledge
NB: Cumulative process.
Familiarity with one narrative leads to understanding of others.
In other words…
Noni Hazelhurst = former presenter of TV series for pre-schoolers (Play School)
Recognisable genre – bedtime story
Recognisable experience – reading bedtime story
Recognisable experience – child not wanting to sleep
Recognisable experience – exhausted adult
Helps to know:
BUT – dual narrative: adult’s thoughts incorporated;
It is not what they would be saying to child – and we’re expected to realise that
Our experience of narrative constantly expanding
The more we read/see/hear, the more we know
Authors make deliberate and / or unconscious decisions about intertextual inclusions / literary echoes
Expect readers to have some knowledge
Level of aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment deeper when reader recognises intertextual elements
Conclusion:
