Definition:
Intertextuality is the principle that every text is fundamentally shaped by its relationships to other texts — through explicit quotation, allusion, and reference, or through implicit participation in shared genres, discourse conventions, and cultural knowledge — such that no text creates meaning in isolation but always in dialogue with prior and concurrent texts. The concept was introduced to literary theory by Julia Kristeva (1966), drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism, and has since been applied in linguistics, discourse analysis, and second language writing research to explain how readers and writers engage with textual traditions.
Types of Intertextuality
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Manifest intertextuality | Explicit reference to other texts | Direct quotation, citation, parody |
| Constitutive intertextuality (interdiscursivity) | Implicit drawing on genre conventions and discourse norms | Academic essay following argument structure conventions |
| Presupposed intertextuality | Meaning depends on assumed knowledge of other texts | Political speech referencing shared cultural narratives |
Bakhtin’s Dialogism
Mikhail Bakhtin argued that all utterances are “dialogic” — each word carries the history of its prior uses, and a speaker’s words are always in dialogue with previous uses of the same words. Intertextuality extends this to the level of texts: texts are always answering, referring to, or anticipating other texts.
Intertextuality and Genre
Genre analysis draws on intertextuality: genres are highly intertextual forms — the academic article, the newspaper editorial, and the business email all carry with them prior texts of the same type that shape reader expectations and writer choices. Learning a genre means learning its intertextual history.
Intertextuality in SLA Writing Research
For L2 writers, intertextuality is a significant challenge:
- Academic writing requires appropriate citation and engagement with source texts
- Plagiarism often reflects inadequate understanding of intertextual norms (attribution conventions)
- L2 writers from educational traditions with different citation norms may “borrow” without attribution in ways that violate target culture expectations — a cultural-linguistic, not moral, issue
- Developing academic intertextual competence is a major target in English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
History
Julia Kristeva coined the term intertextuality in 1966, drawing on Bakhtin. The concept was further developed in literary theory by Roland Barthes (“The Death of the Author,” 1968: “every text is an intertext”). In applied linguistics and discourse analysis, intertextuality was developed by Norman Fairclough and incorporated into critical discourse analysis.
Common Misconceptions
- “Intertextuality means plagiarism.” Intertextuality is a universal property of all texts — every text participates in prior discourse. Plagiarism is the inappropriate absence of attribution, not intertextuality itself.
- “Intertextuality only applies to literature.” Every discourse type — academic writing, news, conversation, social media — is intertextual. Academic genres are particularly explicit in their intertextual conventions (citations).
Criticisms
The concept of intertextuality is sometimes criticized as too broad to be analytically tractable — if every text references every other text, the concept loses specificity. Applied linguistics work has refined the concept to focus on traceable, identifiable intertextual relationships rather than abstract “everything references everything.”
Social Media Sentiment
Intertextuality is frequently discussed in literary studies, media analysis, and internet culture (memes are quintessentially intertextual). The concept has become broadly accessible as a way to understand why cultural references, parody, and allusion work — making it popular in content analysis and digital humanities communities.
Last updated: 2025-07
Practical Application
For L2 writing teachers, intertextuality explains why academic writing is so culturally specific: citation norms, the expectation to “enter the conversation” with prior scholarship, and genre conventions are all intertextual practices that must be explicitly taught rather than assumed. L2 writers who understand intertextuality can approach source citation as cultural convention, not arbitrary rule.
Related Terms
See Also
Research
Kristeva, J. (1986). Word, dialogue, and the novel. In T. Moi (Ed.), The Kristeva Reader (pp. 34–61). Blackwell. (Original 1966)
The founding text introducing the concept of intertextuality in semiotics and literary theory, drawing on Bakhtin’s dialogism to argue that every sign is the locus of multiple preceding texts.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. Polity Press.
The major application of intertextuality to critical discourse analysis — Fairclough’s framework of “manifest intertextuality” and “interdiscursivity” has been widely applied in applied linguistics research.
Pecorari, D. (2003). Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic second-language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(4), 317–345.
An influential study demonstrating that L2 academic writing often involves unintentional text borrowing (“patchwriting”) that reflects inadequate socialization into intertextual citation norms — reframing plagiarism as a developmental issue rather than merely an ethical one.