* Antonella´s Portfolio *: Intertextuality and Originality

Intertextuality:

A term used by Julia Kristeva to describe the preexisting body of discourse that makes an individual text intelligible. Every text is a response to and an interpretation of other texts, and it can be read only in relation to them. The meaning of a text is dependent upon other texts that it absorbs and transforms, for, as Roland Barthes puts it, "the text is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning . . . but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash."

The Call

[Poetry]

By Henry Shukman

All these years and I still don’t understand

how it works, how the signal gets through

the bones of my hand, the bricks of this house,

the bank building opposite, and across miles

of suburb and field, pylons and roads,

hills and four rivers to precisely you,

in another city, another house, another room,

hunched by the bath with your phone in your hand,

sobbing. You can’t bear to feel so split,

you gasp. Downstairs you hear

a chair scrape, a man’s voice.

He laughs, in dialogue with another ghost.

But I understand how light works.

Earlier your back gleamed like a guitar.

The last leaves on the sycamore

flickered like a school of mackerel.

Later I will go out in a leopard-coat of light

without you: just me and the trees baring themselves

for winter, and the marbled paving stones,

and my empty hand shining.

Assignment:

Read the information about Intertextuality and the poem and write 400 words on the concept of originality and on how does this text relate to other texts? Mention them and mention the relationship between/among them. What other texts does this poem transform or are transformed by it?

To begin with, I’d like to analyze the relationship between the concept of intertextuality and the concept of originality. Julia Kristeva first refers to intertextuality in her 1969 essay “Word, Dialogue and Novel”. According to her, a literary work is not the product of a single author, but of its relationship to other texts and to the structures of language itself . By analysing this concept of intertextuality, we find that originality is a completely opposed concept. Originality is the quality of being original, that is, the ability to create something which is not derived from something else .
Since every new work is seen as an interpretation of other texts, we assume that, in consequence, originality is not present in literature. In fact, everything is based on something that has previously happened or something that has already been said or referred to in other works, regardless of the new things that could emerge. This means that, as a result of intertextuality, the starting point of every new work lacks of originality.
To exemplify the relationship between these concepts of intertextuality and originality expressed before, the poem “The Call” has been analysed in relation to other texts and to a very important concept in literature: the concept of defamiliarization .
First, this poem by Henry Shukman expresses how the desire of being with someone who is far away is satisfied by a technological device, in this case, a telephone. The poem is related to the concept of defamiliarization, since he sees the telephone, which is a common thing, in a different way, as if it was something strange. In accordance to this, we can relate “The Call” to “A Martian sends a postcard home” (Craig Raine, 1979), another poem in which the author defamiliarizes many things, such as the rain or mist, which are normal for us.
Love in the distance is the other theme of “The Call”. In accordance to this, we can find a connection with many other poems that express the same theme. For example, in “Long Distance Love”, a poem by Panda, the author has a relationship with someone who is far away, and in “Miles”, Sonia Hernandez expresses how much she loves someone in spite of the distance. We can also think about love in the distance when that person you love so much is kept alive in your heart, even when he or she is no longer physically in the world. Celine Dion in her beautiful song “My heart will go on” expresses that love remains in one’s heart, no matter how far you are or the obstacles that life puts on one’s way.
In conclusion, we can say that intertextuality and originality are two concepts which are very closely related since they both cannot occur together in a text: originality cannot be present unless there is no intertextuality.

The following poems are the ones to which we referred to throughout this work:

A Martian Sends A Postcard Home

By Craig Raine

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings

and some are treasured for their markings -

they cause the eyes to melt

or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but

sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight

and rests its soft machine on ground:

then the world is dim and bookish

like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television.

It has the property of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside -

a key is turned to free the world

for movement, so quick there is a film

to watch for anything missed.

But time is tied to the wrist

or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,

that snores when you pick it up.

If the ghost cries, they carry it

to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet they wake it up

deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer

openly. Adults go to a punishment room

with water but nothing to eat.

They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt

and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night when all the colours die,

they hide in pairs

and read about themselves -

in colour, with their eyelids shut.

Source: http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/131.html

Long Distance Love

By Panda

When it hurts so bad,

why does it feel so good?

I wish this all made sense,

I wish I understood.

Not having you here with me is tearing me up inside,

but I can't stop thinking about you no matter how hard I try.

You know how I feel about you,

and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you,

but it's so hard to do when I can't even be next to you.

Why does it gotta be so complicated?

Loving you feels so right,

but at the same time,

knowing I can't have you keeps me awake at night.

I just want this to be simple,

I just want you here with me,

to look into your eyes,

be held in your arms...then I'd truly be happy.

Right now this distance between us is out of our control,

but I'm still hoping one day soon,

I'll get what I'm wishing for.

Source: http://www.netpoets.com/poems/teenlove/0556001.htm

Miles

By Sonya Hernandez

Miles and miles and miles apart.

Although so far you've touched my heart.

Your laugh, your voice, your adoring smile,

seem to shorten every mile.

I wake every morning and rest at night,

my thoughts and dreams filled with your sight.

Oh how I wish, even for one night,

I could lay in your arms and you hold me tight.

Not just a little bruised or battered,

When I think of the distance it's completely shattered.

We'll never give up or say goodbye.

Remember together, the moon in the sky.

Your heart's a part of me and mine of you.

With that alone, we shall not be blue.

Source: http://www.mydearvalentine.com/valentine/love-poems/long-distance-love-poems.html

My Heart Will Go On

By Celine Dion

Every night in my dreams

I see you, I feel you

That is how I know you go on.

Far across the distance

and spaces between us

You have come to show you go on.

Near, far,

wherever you are,

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more you open the door

And you're here in my heart,

And my heart will go on and on.

Love can touch us one time

and last for a lifetime,

And never let go till we're gone.

Love was when I loved you,

one true time I hold to

In my life we'll always go on.

Near, far,

wherever you are,

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more you open the door

And you're here in my heart,

And my heart will go on and on.

You're here, there's nothing I fear

And I know that my heart will go on.

We'll stay forever this way,

You are safe in my heart,

And my heart will go on and on.

Source: http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/t/titanic10924/myheartwillgoon347933.html

* Antonella´s Portfolio *

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Intertextuality and Originality

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