Intertextuality And Literary Theory

As a new literary theory, the theory of intertextuality embraces many significant literary questions, such as the question of literary intention and signification, the question of meaning's production process, the question of reading and apperception modes, the question of text structure's matrix and anamorphosis, the question of literature's origin and influence, the question of literary rhetoric, the question of the relation of literature and criticism, the question of the relation of literary text and nonliterary text, the question of the relation of art texts, the question of the research pattern of literary history, the question of the relation of literature, culture and history, etc. It involves very vast layers, and has become one of the most complicated categories in connotation of contemporary literary theories. At the same time, the notion of intertextuality is widely used in the dominating theories of criticism in contemporary western countries, and it is the most popular literary criticism which is most widely abused. Taking intertextuality and the construction of literary theory as the topic, the author discusses the origin, development, characters and significance of the notion intertextuality, and the illumination of the construction of intertextuality to the construction of literary theory in this thesis. Adopting a structure of sum-separation-sum, the thesis has five chapters.ChapterⅠ: An instable notion. By analyzing the origin, initial form of the theory of intertextuality, and several theories of intertextuality in the developing process, the author describe the evolving track and whole visage. The notion of intertextuality and the relevant theory of text, which was put forward in the 1960s for the first time by Kristeva, a French literature critic, is the initial form of the theory of intertextuality. Because of different scholars' continuous explanation, this concept has experienced a peculiar changing process, which is from broad sense to narrow sense, from vague to precise, from later structuralism to exoteric structuralism, and presents two directions: one tends to explain the concept of intertextuality widely and use it as a weapon, the theory of intertextuality in this meaning joins the American deconstruction criticism, culture study and New Historicism; the other direction tends to define the concept of intertextuality accurately and use it as a description tool. This two basic tends go by the name of deconstruction's intertextuality and construction's intertextuality. This chapter gives prominence to the richness of intertextuality theory, which gives foreshadowing to the following expatiation.ChapterⅡ: Showing the character of intertextuality by binary comparison. In the first segment of this chapter, the author makes comparison of two theories of influence and intertextuality, which both grow out of France. The author finds the difference of the two criticism concepts from aspects of etymology analysis, academic background, central respect, study tactics and ideology, and shows different essence. The conclusion is that intertextuality breaks the narrow pattern which influences study, expands the space widely and forms the new growing point of literary research. In the second segment, after comparing the western literary theory intertextuality and Chinese classical literary theory "Mixiang pangtong", we can see that there is a academic connection between them. They both show that each literary phenomenon is not self-existent, but in a huge open network, in which every literary phenomenon influences, develops and evolves each other. There are exchange and communication between literary phenomenon, literary phenomenon and un-literary phenomenon. There interweaves many sounds' reecho and multi-ply meanings' overlap. Finally, the author makes use of their commonness and draws the conclusion that "Chinese and western poetics should consult, seal and expound each other on the premise of mutual pardon."ChapterⅢ: The fusion of three research patterns in intertextuality field of view. On the basis of the first two chapters which cardings the concept and compares the knowledge, this chapter points that the theory of intertextuality in criticism practice goes in three aspects: the aspect of text, subject and culture. In the analysis of them, the mutual influence and dialog of text, subject and culture are the core points, and they go at the same time in three aspects. At last, in a cross cultural system, the theory of intertextuality combines the text (as a dominant being), the subject (as an intellectual being) and culture (as a recessive being) well. To this extent, the intertextuality in the theory of intertextuality has the character of pleiotropy, which helps the theory of intertextuality walk away from unneutrality in criticism practice and has a wide expansibility.ChapterⅣ: Intertextuality survey of literary activities 'four factors. On the basis of the first three chapters' theory arrangement and criticism of intertextuality, in two lays of literary activity and acceptance, this chapter rescans the literary activities' four factors: the world, the writer, the works and the reader in the intertextuality angle of view. By means of this intertextuality scan, the author expounds the factors which influence the works' movement and gives the writer and reader an unsteady position----identity's dissociation and interconversion both as receiver. The conclusion is that the relationship between literature and the world is a kind of bidirectional and constructional relationship, a kind of alternant conversational relationship and a kind of deeply intercourse relationship, which forms literature and world's doubly reference finally.ChapterⅤ: Intertextuality's five enlightenments to literary theory's construction. This chapter begins with the comparison between intertextuality and traditional literature study, synthesizes the contents of the foregoing four chapters, and reveals the meaning of intertextuality as a new literary research method from five respects. Moreover, it shows constructing open system and resolution's methodological meaning to comparative studies of Chinese and western literary theory. The contribution of intertextuality to literary theory's construction is various. It not only not limits to the theory's richness of the subject of literary theory, but to deep level, it is a method's promotion. At last, the literary theory will achieve the subject truss's maturity and development on the basis of Chinese and western literary theory's intercourse and exchange.Epilogue : Intertextuality's theory meaning and methodology meaning. It summarizes and promotes the contents of foregoing five chapters and draws the conclusion that comparing with literary reproduction and performance, literary intertextuality is the intensifying of our comprehension of literature, and it also helps to rescan writing and reading in its general sense. As a kind of flexible and open research method, the concept of intertextuality opens the channel of internal criticism and external criticism. This part summarizes the whole thesis and points out the topic.