Intertextuality: Debates and Contexts

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the idea of intertextuality and the debates surrounding it, focusing on the four key thinkers whose work has been central to these debates - Kristeva, Barthes, Bloom and Genette. A comprehensive introduction to 'intertextuality', a term which describes the idea that meaning only exists between a text and all the other texts to which it refers and relates. Focuses on the four key thinkers whose work has been central to these debates - Kristeva, Barthes, Bloom and Genette, guiding the reader through the original texts of each of these. Of special importance is the author’s reading (and translation) of other parts of Kristeva’s Semeiotiké. Takes a fresh approach to the rival French critics - Angenot, Derrida, Girard and Ricoeur - who also worked on intertexuality and tackles the 'language' of intertextuality, shining new light on some of the terminology most commonly associated with this concept.

Table of Contents:
Prologue. Introduction. Chapter 1 - Intertextuality. Kristeva’s Term in Context. Kristeva’s Intertextuality and Semeiotikè. Barthes. Riffaterre. Interdiscursivity. Interdisciplinarity. Internet and Hypertext. Chapter 2 – Influence. Influence v Intertextuality. Bloom’s ‘Anxiety of Influence’ in Context. Harold Bloom. ‘Traditional’ Influence. Chapter 3 – Imitation. Imitation in Context: Mimesis or Anti-mimesis?. Richard Dawkins: Genetics and ‘Memetics’. Gérard Genette: Rhetoric and the Mimologic. René Girard: Sandal and Excommunication. Countering the Canon: Imitatio v Plagiarism, Forgery, Counterfeit. Chapter 4 - Quotation. Quotation in context: Dictionary or Postmodern Definitions?. Quotation’s Crystallizations: Illustrations in Few Other Words. AllusionQuotation’s Aptness: Adeptness in Other Words. Abridgement as Allegory and Parable. Bridging as Cycle and Cyclification. Span and Interpretation. Quotation as Extraction: Re-circulations and Exchanges in so Many Other Words. Prophecy. Translation. Coda: the Return of Reference and the Work of Paul Ricoeur. Conclusions. Notes. Refernces and Bibliography. Index. Dictionary of Alternative Terms.

About the Author :
Mary Orr is Professor of Modern French Studies at the University of Exeter.

Review :
"Mary Orr’s Intertextuality is a major achievement. A provocative analysis of the “canonization” of intertextuality and its main theorists, it is also a probing anatomization of intertextuality’s “others”, such as influence, imitation and quotation. Theoretically acute, and sensitive to metaphor as much as to meaning, this book illuminates papyri, Renaissance commonplace books and the internet as much as it reorientates our understanding of intertextuality. A “must read” for everyone interested in critical theory." Michael Worton, Vice-Provost and Fielden Professor of French Language and Literature, University College London "While advancing a spirited defence of Kristeva, Mary Orr offers a knowledgeable theoretical discussion of intertextuality that throws light on interdiscursivity, interdisciplinarity and intercultural discourse. Intertextuality argues vigorously that hypertexts serve as a generational marker for younger critics and encourage not just a modish but a new way of viewing the translingual and transcultural imagination. In so doing, Professor Orr recuperates a revitalized metacritical consideration of influence, imitation, allusion and quotation in a fascinating book that should open criticism to an exciting future." Allan H. Pasco, Hall Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature, University of Kansas