Q16: Explain the significance of intertextuality for the understanding of adaptation, and provide selected examples of works that illustrate that significance.

Question 1

What is intertextuality?

Answer 1

• critical theory stating that all works of literature are influenced in some way by previous works: no text is completely unique or original;
• intertextuality is the shaping of the text’s meaning by another text either deliberately (quotation, allusion, calque, translation, pastiche or parody) or by interconnections between similar or related works percieved by an adult audience or reader of the text
• intertextuality challenges the concept of uniqueness and originality and replaces them in adaptation with the mix of references to be noticed

Question 2

What is adaptation?

Answer 2

Adaptation and intertextuality are inherently linked with one another:
adaptation - the first mode of intertextuality; the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, into another cultural text
- adaptation = ongoing, dialogical, intertextual process (acc. Robert Stam)

Question 3

What is Hutcheon’s definition of an adaptation?

Answer 3

“a creative and interpretative transposition of a recognizable other work or works”

Question 4

How can adaptation be intertextual?

Answer 4

Adaptation is a form of intertextuality since it is based on at least two works cooperating. For the audience unfamiliar with the source text it creates a whole new source text, which can later evolve into new adaptations, creating an intertextual network.