The internet is an almost endless expanse of text. Images, videos, articles, social media posts— they all exist in a network, a web, if you will. The fact of the matter is that every text always borrows from other texts. Whether it be a meme, or a news article referencing last week’s events, there are going to be connections made between texts as they reference one another. However, the concept of intertextuality isn’t only limited to the digital sphere.
Intertextuality
As I touched on when discussing Beaugrande and Dressler’s seven criteria for text, intertextuality means that every text will relate to texts that have come before itself. Every text that exists draws from or references other texts. Even if these connections are not explicit, the texts will still be connected. This may be by virtue of a shared topic or discourse. Peer reviewed journal articles will have a list of references that they’ve drawn information from. A meme will be created from an original image, and then modified and circulated over and over with different alterations made to the original over time. There may be several films based around the same historical event.
Though I’ve mainly been focusing on digital examples, intertextuality also exists in analog texts. As noted by Doug Eyman, there aren’t any significant differences between digital and analog intertextuality. A printed research paper will likely have an equally extensive references section to a digital research paper. The only true difference between digital and analog intertextuality is the convenience of access that digital technologies have allowed. Printed texts can list other texts they reference, but it is on the reader to search for these texts themselves if they have interest in further reading. On the web, however, investigating the intertextual connections is as simple as clicking a hyperlink.
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