Intertextuality

Intertextuality is a term is used frequently in modern literary studies. It was introduced by the critic Julia Kristeva. In some ways it replaces the notion of one author influencing another. For example, one might say that the folktale "Hakon Grizzlebeard" influenced HCA when he wrote his tale, "The Swineherd," for HCA could hardly have invented his tale without prior knowledge of some variant of "Hakon Grizzlebeard." True, but HCA made a crucial number of changes and revised the folktale to such a point that it is impossible to see the two texts as mere variants of one another.

To understand Intertextuality consider that, in the future, you will never read one of these tales without thinking of the other. The two texts seem to comment on one another: they engage in a dialogue about the way males perceive of women, and that dialogue reveals the sexual ideologies of each text--and of the times and societies that produced these texts. Intertextuality suggests that comparative readings of texts should note not merely that one text has influenced another, but that the texts are intertextually related and create a "two-way street," which readers have to navigate in their minds as they deal with these texts.