INTERTEXTUALITY

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Intertextuality is a term that has become widely used as a theoretical framework within the field of literary criticism since it was first named as such by Kristeva (1974), articulating Bakhtin’s  ideas on dialogism  (1965, 1973, and 1981) as discourse connects across multiple sites of interaction. The use of reported speech, the repetition of  slogans, the recycling of arguments in family interactions, and the parodic reanimation of another’s words are but a few examples of the way intertextuality figures into the way we use language in everyday social and professional life. Thus, it is not a surprise or coincidence that linguists and literary scholars have joined scholars in anthropology, the visual arts and music in their fascination with intertextuality with a focus on textual meaning and the discursive construction of identity, master narratives, and ideology have been of great significance. However, the theoretical approaches and the types of texts used in these fields display such a wide variety that, most of the time, it is almost impossible to discriminate where any similarity begins and ends with the label ‘intertextuality’. Thus, the aim of this course is to attempt to bridge the gap at the intersection of these disciplinary approaches in order to settle the notion of “intertextuality” on an interdisciplinary nature rather than on a multi-disciplinary nature.  After flashing on the foundational works on intertextuality, students are supposed to collect spoken and/or written texts and use these to ground their emerging understanding of intertextuality.  Within this framework, the course is supposed to provide a basis in the historical development of ideas on intertextuality, to equip students with theoretical frameworks for analyzing discourse across contexts, and to bring students to a critical awareness of the role intertextuality plays in the emergence, development and the existence of culture.

Assist. Prof. Dr.
Aslı Özlem TARAKCIOĞLU

SUGGESTED READINGS
Allen, Graham. 2000. Intertextuality. London and New York: Routledge.

Bauman, Richard. 2004. A World of Others’ Words: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Intertextuality.
Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, Michael Holquist (ed.) and Caryl
Emerson and Michael Holquist (trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981 “Discourse in the Novel.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, Michael

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1986. Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, Vern W. McGee (trans.), Caryl
Emerson and Michael Holquist (eds.). Austin: University of Texas Press.

Gordon, Cynthia. 2006. “Reshaping Prior Text, Reshaping Identities.” Text & Talk 26(4-5): 545-571.

Johnstone, Barbara (ed.). 1994. Repetition in Discourse: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Norwood, NJ:
Ablex Publishing Company.

Tedlock, Dennis and Mannheim, Bruce (eds.). 1995. The Dialogic Emergence of Culture. Chicago:
University of Illinois Press.

SCHEDULE OF READINGS
Historical and theoretical foundations
1. “Introduction,” and “Origins: Saussure, Bakhtin, Kristeva,” Allen (2000)
2. “Word, Dialogue and Novel,” Kristeva (1986, chap 2)
3. “Discourse in the Novel,” Bakhtin (1981, pp. 259-366)
4. “The Problem of Speech Genres,” Bakhtin (1986)
5. “Genre, Intertextuality, and Social Power,” Briggs and Bauman (1992)
6. “Introduction: Genre, Performance, and the Production of Intertextuality,” Bauman (2004, chap 1)
7. “Repetition in Situated Discourse—Exploring its Forms and Functions,” Johnstone et al (1994)
8. “Repetition and Otherness: An Essay,” Becker (1994)
9. “Intertextuality in Interaction: Reframing Family Arguments in Public and Private,” Tannen (2006)
10. “Reshaping Prior Text, Reshaping Identities,” Gordon (2006)
11. “The Social Circulation of Media Discourse and the Mediation of Communities,” Spitulnik (1996)
12. “Public Medium, Private Talk: Gossip about a TV Show as ‘Quotidian Hermeneutics,” Tovares
(2006)


East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck vs the story of Genesis.
 Ulysses (1922) by James Joyce vs Homer's Odyssey.
The Dead Fathers Club (2006) by Matt Haig vs Shakespeare's Hamlet.
A Thousand Acres (1991) by Jane Smiley vs Shakespeare's King Lear.
Perelandra (1943) by C. S. Lewis vs the story of Genesis and Milton's Paradise Lost.
Wide Sargasso Sea(1966) by Jean Rhys vs  Charlotte Brontë's  Jane Eyre.
Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) by Eugene O'Neill vs Aeschylus' The Oresteia.
Auden, W. H. (1976).  Musee des beaux arts.  In Collected poems vs Brueghel, P. (c 1558).  Landscape with the fall of Icarus (image). 
Garner, J.  (1994).  Little Red Riding Hood.  In Politically correct bedtime stories (p.74-75).  New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Sexton, A. (1981).  Red riding hood.  In Anne Sexton: The complete poems (pp. 267-272).  Boston: Houghton Mifflin.  Lecture/Discussion: Red Riding Hood as a Case Study of Retellings
The Devil’s Advocate vs Milton’s Paradise Lost and Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne.