Intertextuality and Tradition

These two contributions to the ongoing story of intertextual theory and criticism are diametrically opposed in their approaches and in that way bear witness to the persistence of the concept of intertextuality. Jessica Mason, in Intertextuality in Practice, brings together contemporary versions of stylistic analysis with narratology and with cognitive poetics to look specifically at the way in which readers employ intertextual strategies in compiling and communicating their readings to others. Mason spends little time engaging with the history of theoretical debate that the concept has produced since it was coined by Julia Kristeva in 1967, preferring instead to focus on the pragmatics of reading itself. In fact, Mason is quite dismissive of the theoretical tradition, explaining that “none of this work [the history of theoretical debate on intertextuality] offers a conceptualisation that can be operationalised as a framework for practical analysis, as the field is typically preoccupied with...