From the moment of his literary debut in 1989, Michele Mari is considered to be the representative of classic tendencies in contemporary Italian literature. One of the most noticeable characteristics of his writing is the presence of autobiographic elements which appear in all his works with different intensity, but also the archaization of style and language, literary references and metaliterary reflexions. This article aims at showing how the 1992 novel La stiva e l’abisso connects two of those aspects of Mari’s writing: intertextuality and literary references to adventure novel genre, as well as it reflects on the role and value of the literature for the contemporary people. It analyses basic narrative instances, that is the narrator, narrative structure, place and time of events, in order to show how they result in metaliterary reflexion.
Péter Esterházy has been for over 20 years one of the most important contemporary Hungarian writers. While postmodernist, he highly respects modernist predecessors like Dezső Kosztolányi or Gezá Ottlik, and implicitly the modernist values they represent. Acknowledged as a great writer in Europe as well as in Hungary, Esterházy’s major work, Harmonia Caelstis, printed at Gallimard, generated a number of eulogistic reviews. An important feature of his work remains intertextuality, the dialogue with great European writers and philosophers. Apart from humour, sensuality and encyclopedic knowledge, the frequent references to French literature have contributed to making him quite popular in France.
In this article journeys to autobiographical places of the selected writers (Andrzej Stasiuk, Egon Bondy, Ondra Łysohorsky) are interpreted as a form of intensified reading of their works. Travel texts (written by Jáchym Topol, Jacek Podsiadło and Bogdan Trojak) resulting from such a sensual reading naturally refer to both pretexts as well as biographies of the authors visited. It is not important if the travellers meet these authors in person or not. The ways of moving in space are simultaneously cognitive figures of the texts created: deviation from the mainstream of the journey becomes visible both in the digressive nature of the narration as well as in the multiple intertextual connections.
In a world where the arts have become one more target for multimedia corporations it is worth remembering the more authentic intertextuality of works which appeared around 1940, i.e. John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath", Darryl F. Zanuck and John Ford’s film of the same name, and the songs of Woody Guthrie. Never before had literature,cinema and song been so intimately and powerfully linked, and nothing since has come near to replicating this unique symbiosis.
The paper is an attempt to investigate the possibilities and limitations connected with the unreflective adaptation of the concept of intertexuality, worked out by theoreticians of literature, to musicological research. The author is especially interested in assessing in that sense the concept of the relationships between literary styles proposed by Stanisław Balbus in the book Between Styles, which is currently the source of inspiration for many Polish musicologists. The starting point of the reflection is recalling the doubts addressed by Tibor Kneif already in the 1970s, as far as the reasonableness of using the achievements of semiotics by musicologists is concerned. Going further, the author enters into discussion with some Polish musicologists who use the proposals of intertextuality researchers, e.g. Balbus’, quite too hastily, and examines the examples of sub-mitting by them as intertextual musical works in which one can not find in fact any intertextual relations. The author describes as unreasonable the procedure of presenting the musical works based on borrowings as especially worthy in the sense of their connection with the tradition. The danger lies here in the fact of how easily objective analysis can be replaced with ideology. The author also reminds that most of extra-textual relationships in musical works can be describedusing the traditional tools of musicological analysis — aimed at searching the autonomous sense of music.
Beyond methods and models, concepts and hypotheses, comparative literature deals not only with concordia discors, but also with coincidentia oppositorum. What shall be termed here the CD EFFECT (The Concordia Discors Effect) is almost everywhere discernible. Texts and images, graphs and maps, diagrams, atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias - are the “triumph” of balance and harmony. All these corpora are the result of an “infinite” succession of macro-linguistic operations, of micro-literary mechanisms, of protocols of cultural macro-trends, of Euro-Atlantic and Asian mentality macro-fluxes. It is a hypothesis the present study submits to the test of Popper’s refutability.
The topic of this article is the issue of intertextuality in word-and-music works. The analysis of it requires an identification of overtly intertextual units, as well as intersemiotic relations established among them, both in the sphere of linguistics and the poetics of the musical work. In the interpretation of the extratextual meanings of the work the author proposes their examination at four hierarchically dependent levels: (1) of overtly intertextual musical structures, (2) of semantic meanings of the said structures, (3) of the form of the work as an area of activation of the above mentioned structures, and (4) of the ideological/cultural meaning of the work. In the sphere of musical phenomena, overtly intertextual structures may include textural-sound figures, as well as the units of musical form. The sphere of meanings requires the recognition of the sources of semi-osis, semantic functions, and cultural intermediations of the said structures, interpreted on the basis of semiotic methodologies. At the level of musical poetics, the visualization of relations between the individual musical phenomena and their functions in the context of the entirety of the work constitutes the basis for the interpretation of its meaning in relation to the theories of the leading interpreters of postmodernist culture. The Third Symphony for alto solo and symphony orchestra by Paweł Mykietyn (2011) reveals in its structure numerous overtly intertextual units, as well as formal and generic patterns and construction techniques allowing one to determine the cultural meaning of the work in which the composer entered into “a daring dialog with postmodernism”. The concept of the work, a polemic with tradition (interaction of high and popular — youth culture elements), a provocative gesture, of sorts, by the artist, defines the position and the value of Paweł Mykietyn’s Third Symphony in the area of postmodern culture works.
The aim of the article is to demonstrate that intertextual references are crucial for the building of the semantic structure of a given work. In the author’s opinion these intertextual links should constitute the translative dominant (Anna Bednarczyk’s term). In addition the nature of intertextuality was analyzed on the basis of Hatim and Mason’s notion of intertextual chains. It was proved that the omission of one loop in translation did not mar the overall semantic field operating by connotation.
Flann O’Brien in The Poor Mouth and Alasdair Gray in Poor Things use parody (of Gaeltacht memoirs and Gothic fiction respectively) to join in a discussion on literary representations of their homelands (Ireland and Scotland). This paper discusses the subversive play on the reader’s expectations regarding literary representation of places driven by previous knowledge of the parodied genre’s conventions which the two authors use to pinpoint the inadequacy of the hitherto existing literary tradition.
Reviewed book: Piotr Stasiewicz, Między światami. Intertekstualność i postmodernizm w literaturze fantasy, Białystok Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku 2016, ISBN 978-83-7431-494-7
We are living in the time of intertextuality, when — following Mikhail Bakhtin — every expression is saturated with a resonance of dialogue. Therefore, to understand the style of an artistic expression, we should also consider its imminent dialogic quality. The article presents the works of Polish composers, beginning with Karol Szymanowski, from the perspective of six intertextual strategies elicited from the concept of Stanisław Balbus (Między stylami/Between Styles), a Polish literary theoretician. They are: (1) “active continuation” (adaptation of past models); (2) “restitu-tion of the form” (conscious reference to a form present within the field of cultural awareness, due to its formal fitness for the taken up expressive tasks); (3) “open imitation of models” (a model is perceived as an authoritative vehicle for values); (4) “a stylistic reminiscence” (a “memory” of the model under the brand of an individual statement) (5) “cultural transposition of a theme” (the transmigration of motifs, themes, and significant gestures, the phenomenon of the active topoi); (6) “styling” (the key type of intertextuality, emphasising the nature of intertextual and interstylistic connections). Looking at the Polish music of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century, a number of general claims favoured by the intertextual perspective can be made. (1) Polish music set in tradition: tradition perceived as an inter-text, and building an inter-context for the pieces created. (2) Reinforced at the foundations of the Polish music created “here and now” is the sense of dialogue, opening to the other. (3) The value of the work as such is emphasised in Polish music. (4) Against the preached concepts of “the death of the author” or “the weak subject”, a powerful need for the creation of own style is still present. (5) As an inter-text, the work becomes even stronger semantically loaded.
In the late twenties of the 20th century, Bertolt Brecht found himself accused by contemporary literary critics of having copied Rimbaud in his drama “Im Dickicht der Städte“. This was an occasion for him to develop a literary poetics that focuses on the aesthetics and ethics of plagiarizing. Brecht considered the literary technique of plagiarism as being productive for four reasons. First, the copy eliminates every personal dimension of a symbolic expression and emphasizes its genuine features, just as the Epic Theater does. Secondly, the copy incorporates into the aesthetic production process the art of forgetting, which Brecht – following Nietzsche – considers as being a vital power. Thirdly, the copy deconstructs the concept of the artist as a genius, which to Brecht – as well as to Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes – is essentially ideological, for, by disallowing the free composition of aesthetic fiction, it impedes the artistic process. Fourth, in the field of symbolic production, the copy represents a form of proto-communist common property as it eludes any efforts of commercialization made by the capitalist cultural industry. The essay traces Brecht’s arguments in favour of plagiarism and analyzes the political consequences of this explicitly epigonal writing strategy.
In his "Encyklopedia duszy rosyjskiej" Wiktor Jerofiejew performs a brutal vivisection of his nation’s cultural memory. The key concepts of history, power, nation, and fatherland gain a new erudite interpretation. Consistent in uncovering totalitarian discourse, Jerofiejew demythologizes opinions and prejudices, deconstructs ideas, concepts and attitudes. While bringing to life the portrait of Russian mentality and their national character, he proposes hierarchy but never accepts taboos. Consequently, "Encyklopedia" does not appeal to popular tastes. It is a multifaceted “miniature gallery”, a bitter diagnosis of the essence of Russianness and the condition of Russian culture.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the novel Angels and Insects by Antonia Susan Byatt in terms of intertextual references. The author’s assumptions are based on the categorisation by Ryszard Nycz, who distinguishes three major types of intertexts: text versus text, text versus literary genre and text versus mimesis. Byatt uses intertextuality mainly to comment on the role of nature in the world, as well as to enhance the importance of human relationship with nature. Moreover, the writer moves towards literary criticism, discussing poems by famous artists, such as Alfred Tennyson or John Milton. In this way, the novel by Byatt is also an example of metafiction. All the narration techniques used by the English writer make the novel a typically postmodern work of art.
Humour is often exploited in advertising to enhance the positive image of a brand or corporate company, as well as to promote products or services. Advertisers seek the involvement of the audience via covert or overt references that, in their opinion, may trigger humour and, hypothetically, result in a positive customer response. However, using intertextual humour in advertising can sometimes be risky because, even though the ideal interlocutor is supposed to be familiar with the humorous reference the author alludes to, the latter can never be certain of whether it will be favourably received. The matter is further complicated if the advert relies on references that play on taboo or transgressive topics, which some may find humorous while others will consider distasteful. After all, humour is a phenomenon that varies according to individual cultures and historical time, as well as in terms of how it is perceived and whether it is appreciated. In this context, this study focuses on the use of intertextual taboo humour in adverts and campaigns that exploit both verbal and non-verbal texts. It particularly explores the reasons for the target clientele’s reaction, which has had a boomerang effect on the brand and company itself. The suggested hypothesis is that the simultaneous exploitation of verbal and non-verbal intertextual references (consciously or unconsciously) activates multiple targets and scripts that cause the intended humour to fail in its scope.
The author of this article analyzes the play The Siege by Evgeny Grishkovets, a renowned contemporary Russian writer. She places it against a background of the rest of his works, exposing essential features that characterize his entire dramaturgy, such as the presence of metatheatrical devices, recognition of the importance of contact with the audience, and emphasis on stage performance. The analysis also draws attention to such elements of the play as non-homogeneous spatio-temoral framework, hybrid composition of characters, and parallel development of plot threads. Special attention is paid to the “imprisoning” of characters in discourses and the ambivalent nature of cultural symbols. As the author points out, The Siege stands out in the Grishkovets’s oeuvre, both by departing from the dominant monodrama form and by juxtaposing key themes recurring in his works: the human experience of war, the reflection on the nature of time, the collapse of language referential abilities, and the impossibility of authentic communication.
The article deals with various types of dialogue of cultures in the songs by Veronika Dolina. The genre of “author song” (Russian and Soviet singer-songwriters’ works) is analysed as a special kind of dialogue with listeners as well as with history and culture. In particular, the author interprets and places in intertextual context three songs by Dolina: ‘The Aunt Told Me’, ‘On the Death of A. D. S.’ and ,The Cardinal Is Still Young’.
The creative principles and techniques of Anton Chekhov have proved attractive to modern writers. Many late-20th-century authors, e.g. Tendryakov or Sasha Sokolov, used the naiveté and naturalness of a child’s mind when depicting contradictions and controversial issues. A connection with Chekhov is evident in the development of the theme of a mental institution, its doctors and patients (Makanin, Pelevin). Also the Chekhovian principle of refusal to categorically judge the words and deeds of the characters gains fundamental importance (Dovlatov). It is from Chekhov that modern writers have learnt to present serious psychological issues and world-view questions through commonplace imagery.
In the panorama of Polish music of the 2nd half of the 20th century the works of Silesian composers stand out. They were born in 1951 and thus they are referred to as the ‘Generation 51’ or the ‘Stalowa Wola Generation’ (from the place of their debut at the Festival ‘Young Musician for the Young City’ in Stalowa Wola in 1976): Eugeniusz Knapik, Aleksander Lasoń and Andrzej Krzanowski. They constituted the first generational phenomenon of such significance in Polish music since the debut of ‘Generation 33’ (Krzysztof Penderecki, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki and others). The musical style of these young authors was in tune with the Polish popular phenomenon of the 1970s of ‘New Romanticism’, consisting in a return to certain artistic and aesthetic values lost in modernism and avant-garde. One of the distinguishing features of Knapik’s, Lasoń’s and Krzanowski’s work is the application of various ‘intertextual strategies’ – quotations, allusions, and clear references to more or less specific musical traditions. In the works of ‘Generation 51’ composers, these strategies have a certain superior ‘axiological sense’ (Władysław Stróżewski), which is far from a purely ludic, postmodernist play on conventions and texts. The aim of the text is a review and an attempt to interpret those strategies. A methodological reference point will be the semantic analyses of possible intertextual references performed by Mieczysław Tomaszewski and Stanisław Balbus.
Contemporary Russian drama is situated in a dialogue with literary and more precisely dramatic tradition. For example, this thesis clearly confirms a comedy by Igor Shpric On the bottom. The text at the level of its title refers to Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths. Shpric’s comedy parodies this work by presentingGorky's characters in the social and cultural context of contemporary reality. The main purpose of the paper is the intertextual analysis and interpretation of ironic Shpric’s comedy as the transcontextualization of language, poetics, themes, plot and characters ofGorky's text.
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Contemporary Russian drama is situated in a dialogue with literary and more precisely dramatic tradition. For example, this thesis clearly confirms a comedy by Igor Shpric On the bottom. The text at the level of its title refers to Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths. Shpric’s comedy parodies this work by presentingGorky's characters in the social and cultural context of contemporary reality. The main purpose of the paper is the intertextual analysis and interpretation of ironic Shpric’s comedy as the transcontextualization of language, poetics, themes, plot and characters ofGorky's text.
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