Hypertextuality and Intertextuality

Hypertextuality

• Refers to text on a computer or other electronic device with references (hyperlinks) to other texts.
• These hyperlinks give the reader immediate access, usually activated by a mouse click.
• K. Amaral described it in 2010 as a non-linear approach to presenting information.
• Hypertext offers multiple reading paths and includes digital texts.
• It can take you to more hypertext, books, movies, sounds, and images.
• The most common implementation is the World Wide Web.
• Any clickable text on the World Wide Web is considered hypertext.

Hypertext Benefits

• Hypertext incorporation provides three main pedagogical benefits in composition classes.
• Hypertext can be constructed as a collaborative medium.
• Makes possible forms of collaboration that emphasize the social construction of meaning.
• Hypertext can be used in nearly any computer-facilitated classroom.
• The hypertext and search engine was used by Encarta.

Intertextuality

• Refers to a textual reference within a text that uses another text as a reference.
• Includes novels, plays, films, short stories, and poems.
• It can be the retelling or rewriting of an old story in a modern context.
• For example, James Joyce retells "The Odyssey" in his novel, "Ulysses."

Types of Intertextuality

• There are three main types: appropriation, allusion, and parody.

Appropriation

• Is the adaptation of something old into something new.
• Involves borrowing from another text.
• Also, can be a reinterpretation.
• Or Reimagining an existing text and making it new.

Allusion

• References another text.
• It could also reference a person, place, or event.
• The audience or reader has to make the connection.

4 Types of Allusion

• Literary
• Cultural
• Biblical
• Historical

Allusion Examples

• "Don't act like a Scrooge!" (Literature - A Christmas Carol)
• "She was a Good Samaritan when she helped the older lady." (Bible)
• "He studies all the time and is a regular Einstein!" (Historical figure)
• "Chocolate is my Achilles' Heel!" (Greek Mythology)

Parody

• Is a funny imitation of a serious piece of literature, writing, art, or music.
• It "pokes fun" at something to entertain the audience/reader.