Intertextuality : theories and practice /

This collection consists of a long introduction (44 pages), authored by the coeditors, and nine essays. All analyze the concept of "intertextuality" primarily from the perspective of French studies, where it originated and attained its current meaning. The concept asserts that texts are woven of elements that cut across the ordinary boundaries of genre, chronology, nationality, or the issue of high versus mass culture. Going beyond the commonplace observation that authors allude to each others' texts, "intertextuality" asserts that the minds of authors and readers are also "intertexts" woven of the threads of the meanings they have consumed and with the help of which they interpret. The introduction contains a good survey of the topic, beginning with Montaigne and ending with the seminal theoretical contributions of J. Kristeva, R. Barthes, J. Derrida, and (unusually but productively) with M. Bakhtin and H. Bloom. This piece, J. Frow's "Intertextuality and Ontology," and M. Riffaterre's "Compulsory Reader Response: The Intertextual Drive," are among the best in the collection; K. Reader's and A. Jefferson's essays are also noteworthy. This book can usefully complement Intertextuality and Contemporary American Fiction, ed. by P. O'Donnell and R. Davis (CH, Feb'90). Recommended only to the exceptional undergraduate libraries. -K. Tololyan, Wesleyan University