Intertextuality in Hypertext – Part One 1 comment
In my last post, I identified that the term ‘intertextuality’ has several different meanings throughout linguistics; it has been a term coined for many different purposes, similar to the way “Web 3.0” has been used and abused in recent years. It seems that the benchmark of a ‘serious’ intertextuality study is the identification and isolation of this problem.
Pre-structuralists identified intertextuality as the conveyance of varying meanings from author to reader. This largely depended on the reader’s subjective norms and expectations. For instance, one text may represent itself in different ways to different readers, with or without the intent of the author. Modern theories identify intertextuality as links between texts, perhaps intentionally, but fundamentally produced by texts, not authors. (Source: Wikipedia; Beckett’s Dantes: Intertextuality in the Fiction and Criticism).
In Intertextuality: Debates and Contexts, Orr identifies electronic media as catalysts to the challenging of traditional intertextuality theories, where terms such as “hypertextuality” and “interdisciplinarity” take precedence over intertextuality, effectively confining intertextuality to printed media of the past.
It yet remains to be seen (through reading) what relations exist between intertextuality and modern electronic media, although several hypotheses have been discovered. If parallels can be drawn, then the development and future of hypertext, and those who use it, may be related to that of previous media models such as printed text.
I will be looking into adjusting my second research topic so it concurs with the themes of this exercise.
One Response to 'Intertextuality in Hypertext – Part One'
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You have started off with quite a high level problem and what some fairly advanced reading on your earlier blog reading list – this is great and Mary Orr is of course an expert in this area.
For the sociology aspect I would probably start by getting my head round some of the core approaches/perspectives – if there is still a copy in the library you might want to look at Giddens ‘Sociology’ the section on ‘Language, Discourse and Social Life’ for an overview of some of the key thinkers and ideas. Also check out any of the introductory textbooks for descriptions of postmodernism and post structuralism as I think these will help.