A Study On The Intertextuality Of Don Quixote In Oral Culture Transformation

Locating in the transition period from written culture to oral culture,Don Quixote had not only got the influence of oral literature but also the impact of written literature.Taking the narrative aspects for example,Don Quixote relapsed into the old habits of the scattered narrative of oral literature at one side,but then overstepped that by its unique “form of realism” on the contrary.On the content,it followed the tradition of "singularity" of oral literature,but at the same time implanted current social reality,ordinary characters and other realistic elements into the literary works.Which had finally transformed the novel 's interests into the real world.In the characteristic of the heroes,Don Quixote had not only shown the education which Don Quixote and Sancho had received in the different background of written culture and oral ones,but also creatively exposed the division and conflict in their deep heart by which these two had brought.All in all,the whole Don Quixote is both a field of struggle between oral culture and written culture,and an achievement of Cervants trying to structure the new tradition of written literature out of the oral one.Having taken the strong intertextuality of Renaissance literature as the foundamental theory,this paper will discuss those textual phenomena within three parts.The first is the research of "the intratextuality of Don Quixote".This part will firstly analyze the framework of intertextuality which means the inner elements of the text had mutually referenced by using "echo-repeat" and "delay-insert" to which the author thought had developed a realistic developmental logic of literary works accordingly.Secondly,it will analyze the intertextual relationship between Don Quixote and its illustrations and a written but imaginary illustration,of which is believed that only in the sense of "verbal image & graphs" could be possible and acceptable.And these two discourses have a very different way of experiencing and effect.Thirdly,it will analyze the self-referentiality of Don Quixote,that is,it mapped the author,the narrator and the novel itself into the text and which had finally bedimmed the boundary between reality and fiction,literature and life.However,being different from the meta-fiction to expose its fictitiousness,the meta-strategy taken by Don Quixote was just to make up a kind of "authenticity".Lastly,the paper will discuss the relationship between written "preface" and oral "prologue",Don Quixote and its "preface",and the reflection toward intertextuality in that preface.The second is the study about "the intertextuality of genre of Don Quixote".This part will firstly analyze the parody of Don Quixote out of the knight literature,which included two ways as "tonal modification" and "distorting mirror parody" to imitate the language and plots of the latter.Besides,the author thought that there have a closely relationship between Don Quixote and the medieval and Renaissance folk carnival literature.Secondly,it will analyze the juxtaposition of literary genres,such as poetry,drama,short story,proverb and speech in Don Quixote.The author holds that all of which has their unique methods to observe and understand reality and for which Don Quixote has served itself by taking their advantages to participate the construction of the identity of the novel.Finally,the author will analyze the oral narrative mode of Don Quixote,especially the structure of "dual companion" and circular frame,by which the author argues that has given the novel a mirror to reflect different orientation of the subject and its different selfhood and fate,and of course had made an outstanding achievement in the narrative mode.The third part is research about "the extratextuality of Don Quixote".This part will firstly analyze how Don Quixote had implanted the author's thoughts and experiences and the current Spanish social culture into the works,and as well exposed the author's value judgment towards it.That the author at one side argues that this kind of operation has promoted a great turning into concerning the reality in long literary works,but at the other side it actually was a kind of "extension" of the reality,which means it might not the accurate real reality.Secondly,it centrally analyzes the separation and integration of oral culture and written culture which Don Quixote has revealed.And in which the author thought had resulted to the wandering of Don Quixote and Sancho between written culture and oral ones,while the former behaved as a rational madness and the latter as words of madness.In the meantime,it also reflected in Cervantes' s own course and the form and content of Don Quixote.At the conclusion part,the author will firstly analyze the difference between oral culture and written culture,and the relationship between them and the intertextuality.The author holds that intertextuality is not actually the exclusive feature of any one of them,only because oral and manuscript culture merge with the new print technology,which had finally made the intertextual features in the Renaissance to be highlighted.Secondly,it will analyze the two reasons of the strong character of intertextuality of the Renaissance novels,that the genre is not yet mature and its still held the impact of oral culture.And finally it will concretely integrate it into Don Quixote to illustrate the logic of this thesis,that is,basing on the oral cultural background of Don Quixote,taking its intertextuality as the observation point,and analyzing it's achivement on realism.