Intertext is the dialogical interaction of essays, the correlation of a certain text with another, which ensures the disclosure of the meaning the author needs. This is the main method and type of building a work of art in modernism and postmodernism. Its essence lies in the fact that the text is created from reminiscences and quotations to other works.
The original version of the "dialogue between texts" belongs to the Russian philosopher and thinker, the theorist of European art Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich. Today, intertextuality is actively used in literary and scientific texts.
The emergence of the term
The term intertextuality was introduced in 1967 by the French researcher and theorist of poststructuralism Julia Kristeva. It was used to denote the general property of texts, consisting in the presence of certain relationships that allow parts of the text to refer to each other. Moreover, the links can be either explicit or implicit.
The emergence of this term and the emergence of the theory precisely at the end of the twentieth century is not accidental. The development of the media, the increased availability of art, and mass education have led to a powerful semiotization of human life.
If you manage to come up with something new, then it still needs to be associated with what was invented before. If there is no talk of novelty, then such a relationship shows the reliability of information, its reliability and validity. Art and many other contemporary processes are becoming more and more intertextual.
Forms and functions
There are three main forms of intertexts:
1. Quotation. This is the main format for modern intertextual scientific articles. It represents marked fragments of previously written texts.
2. Indirect retelling. Not specific words and statements are taken, but only excerpts and the main meaning.
3. Background links to a previously published idea or theory.
Intertext functions:
1. Authentic. Allows you to determine the exact source of the statement. Indicates the validity and reliability of the information.
2. Text-forming. Intertext allows you to create a meaningful basis for the material.
3. Informational. Selects and transfers any data and information.
The term intertext is used to refer to a constantly evolving body of texts that exists either on the virtual, ideal, or library levels.
In fact, each text is an intertext, since there is no information that has never been mentioned before or does not exist at least a reference to it. The material can be compared to a fabric that is woven from quotes and statements previously used.