Intertextuality: Debates and Contexts

by Mary Orr

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the idea of intertextuality and the debates surrounding it, focusing on the four key thinkers whose work has been central to these debates - Kristeva, Barthes, Bloom and Genette.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is pretty heavy. It would often take me an hour or two just to read ten pages. But I think that Orr gave a very clear and interesting picture of the various branches of intertextuality. The only thing that kept me going through this book was her writing as well as the fact that I needed those credits.

Anyway, throughout the course of this book, I learned a lot about various Lit theories and philosophies. The difficult part about venturing into new fields of theory means that during some chapters I was barely grasping what the author was talking about. Maybe that had more to do with the subject matter than the author. Some of the chapters came off as pretentious, but I've noticed that's a very common theme when reading books on literary theory.

Even though I had some difficulties with this book, I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It is supposed to be an introduction to intertextuality and it definitely succeeds in showing the reader the various related theories. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about postmodern literary theory, particularly those concepts and ideas that were made famous by Bloom or Derrida. An heavy read that I wish I had more time to process, but maybe I'll revisit it in a few years to see if my opinions have changed at all.

[Andrew Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got the the delivery on this and have started on it. So far I am loving this. Lots of big words to go look up...

[Kushal Raut]

because i hve very great interest in intertextuality

[iitu · Rating 3 out of 5]

to-be-read-again (in order to understand)