Lecture 2

Intertextuality Plan

1. What is the category of intertextuality?

2. Types of allusions.

3. Functions of intertextuality.

4. Principles of translation of allusions.

Key words: allusion; explicit allusion; implicit allusion; intratextuality.

1. In fiction, in newspaper articles, in speeches we can often find names of historical characters, events, references to folklore, myths and legends, music, painting, etc. Such references are allusions. Today in different types of texts we can see, e.g., Biblical allusions – Bethelehem, apostle, crucifixion and others. Allusion is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing (I.R.Galperin).

E.g. one of the articles in the “Time” magazine is entitled “Lost in Translation”. This is an allusion to the famous American film, though the articles tells about translation problems in European Union. Another article in “Time” has the title “Do you dare to eat a peach?” which is, in fact, an allusion to the poem by T.S.Eliot.

Besides allusions, we can also see quotations which are usually marked by inverted commas, italics, dashes and other graphical means (in the written text). Quotations are mostly accompanied by the reference to the author of the quotation. The reference is made either in the text or in the footnote, e.g. “(Such and such) once said that”; “here we quote”; etc.

A quotation is the exact reproduction of an actual utterance made by a certain author. The differences between allusions and quotations are the following: 1) in case of allusion no indication of the source is given; 2) structural – quotations repeat the exact words of the original while allusions are only the mentioning of the word or phrase.

Both quotations and allusions comprise two meanings – the primary one (s) which they had in the original context and the new which they acquire in another context. Still some scientists unite quotations and allusions into one group – allusions in general.

Both allusions and quotations are manifestations of the category of intertextuality. “Intertextuality is understood as the inclusion of other texts or their fragments with another speech subject into the given text in the form of allusions or quotations” (I.V.Arnold).

The theory of intertextuality was developed by Julia Kristeva. She elaborated this concept under the influence of Mikhail Bakhtin who described the literary text as a multilayered mosaic [mou’zeik] of quotations forming a dialogical and polyphonous structure. For Kristeva, the text is an intersection (перетинання) of texts and codes, the absorption and transformation of another text. Intertextuality cannot be reduced to the question of literary influence. It comprises the whole field of contemporary and historical language reflected within the text.

According to modern Russian philosopher V.Bibler, intertextuality is the dialogue of cultures, of cultural contexts.

Two types of intertextuality can be singled out: author’s intertextuality and reader’s intertextuality Due to the author’s intertextuality all the space of poetic and cultural memory is infroduced into the text which is being created, and the literary tradition comes from present to past. From the reader’s point of view, intertextuality has two basic functions: 1) it helps to get a deeper understanding of the text; 2) it helps to solve text anomalies (misunderstanding) due to the link with other texts.

Intertextuality is realized through allusions, but not all allusions are connected with this category. Historical, political, etc. allusions do not refer to this category. Only textual allusions refer to intertextuality:

L.Brezhnev reportedly joked to Willie Brandt: “Do you know what Marx would say if he were alive today? Workers of all world, forgive me” (“Newsweek”).

The names of Brezhnev, Brandt, Marx are historical and political allusions, but the last phrase which is a periphrasis of the famous statement by Marx is an intertextual allusion.

Intertextual allusions are realized in the signals, or markers of intertextuality. Such markers can be explicit or implicit. If we speak about Biblical allusions, mythology, works of great writers like Shakespeare we have explicit allusions, i.e. allusions which are known and understood by the majority of readers:God, whom he had searched for in his loneliness, had formed her for his mate as Eve for Adam out of Adam’s rib (D.Thomas).

Quotations can be characterized as explicit allusions because the author and often the source is given, like in the above example with Marx.

(handouts, № 2, 3a).

While the majority of Biblical legends are known to most people in Europe, the British myths and legends are not so well known, e.g., to Ukrainian readers.

Functions of interxtuality:

1) cross cultural, it unites different cultures, different historical periods and traditions;

2) it gives polysemantic character to the utterance, the text (fragment) receives new meanings, new sense due to allusions;

3) image-making – it helps the author to create new images, new tropes;

4) it helps the author to create his (her) own mythology;

5) interpretative – it helps to interpret difficult parts in the text.

Besides intertextual allusions, another type of allusions is singled out – intersemiotic allusion (N. Fateyeva) – the reference is made to another sphere of art: music, painting, sculpture, etc.: Lame like Pisa, the night leaned on the west walls (D.Thomas), an empire broken like Venus. The last sentence contains the allusion to the famous sculpture of the Roman goddess Venus with the broken arm.

Besides intertextuality, another type of intertextual allusion is singled out – intratextuality (the term belongs to the American scientist L.Orr), or author’s intertextuality. Intratextuality involves the repetition of characters, situations, etc. in the texts of the same author, the repetitions of tropes in the framework of idiolect of the same writer. It can be different stories of one author, or stories and novels, or even texts of different genres – poems and prose (or plays). For example, a famous metaphor in James Joyce’s story “The Dead” (“The Dubliners”) His soul swooned slowly is repeated in his later poem “Alone”:

And all my soul is a delight

A swoon of shame.

In D.Thomas’s short stories and poems one can see the repetition of tropes, even extended metaphors like ‘time – old man’: So fast I move defying time, the quiet gentleman, /Whose beard wags in Egyptian wind (“Should lanterns shine”) – Consider now the old effigy of time, his long beard, whitened by an Egyptian sun (“The Mouse and the Woman”).

Intertextuality and intratextuality have basically different functions though they are all based on certain intertextual cohesion.The major importance of intratextuality for the reader is the possibility to determine the main features of the style of the author, his/her preference for certain lexical, grammatical units, or text structure.