Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History

Influence and Intertextuality in Literary History
ISBN-10
0299130347
ISBN-13
9780299130343
Category
American literature
Pages
364
Language
English
Published
1991
Publisher
Univ of Wisconsin Press
Authors
Jay Clayton, Eric Rothstein

Description

This collection explores and clarifies two of the most contested ideas in literary theory - influence and intertextuality. The study of influence tends to centre on major authors and canonical works, identifying prior documents as sources or contexts for a given author. Intertextuality, on the other hand, is a concept unconcerned with authors as individuals; it treats all texts as part of a network of discourse that includes culture, history and social practices as well as other literary works. In thirteen essays drawing on the entire spectrum of English and American literary history, this volume considers the relationship between these two terms across the whole range of their usage.

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