The Post Without A Title

Intertextuality - The condition of interconnectedness among texts, or the concept that any text is an amalgam of others, either because it exhibits signs of influence or because its language inevitably contains common points of reference with other texts through such things as allusion, quotation, genre, style, and even revisions.

Intertextuality is probably one of my favorite words that we've studied throughout the semester. The more this word comes up the more I think about all the things I've experienced that have exemplified intertextuality; whether it be books, paintings, or films. The question is, what exactly is the point? Why engage in intertextuality? Well, I think it's rather simple.

It provides us with a sense of progression.

In order to fix or improve upon something, one must be aware of what it is that needs to be fixed or improved upon. I think about what is often considered the greatest film of the 90's: Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction is brilliant. It didn't follow a traditional narrative, it's unchronological, it utilized a lot of seemingly-pointless dialog that actually served to build characters. It felt like such a new thing. Upon deep analysis though, one can see that it treads the line of being incredibly new and not new at all. Pulp Fiction prides itself on being multiple storylines that somehow tie together. If one is aware of film noir, one can tell that Pulp Fiction weaves a lot of tales that have brought notice to the genre of film noir. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson can be compared to The Killers. The Killers also features a boxer. A boxer is also featured in Pulp Fiction. Then we have a glowing case in Kiss Me Deadly. Once again, it's seen in Pulp Fiction.

If we are aware of the past, we can build upon our future, maybe make something considered the greatest in a decade.