Chapter 6 - Intertextuality

Activities and comments/projects

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(Activities that are asterisked are particularly useful for discussion in class, in which case multiple copies or PowerPoints of the text could be produced.)

*Activity 46*

Find a text that seems to be a combination of different genres. Besides ads for financial services such as Sumo/Luma, car adverts or official forms are also good sources. What different genres (or voices) do you find overlapping or represented in the text? Bring in the texts for class discussion.

Activity 47

  1. Find examples of free direct speech in the following passage from a novel by Henry James.
  2. In direct speech, some of the underlined reporting phrases indicate the manner of speaking. Others label the speech act that the speech represents. Some do both. Try to decide which is which. (The sentences have been numbered for your convenience.) For example, (1) cried indicates manner, (2) gaily answered, the gaily indicates manner, and answered is a speech act label.

(1) ‘How you talk to her!’ cried Mrs Beale.

(2) ‘No worse than you!’ he gaily answered.

(3) ‘Handsome is that handsome does!’ she returned in the same spirit. (4) ‘You can take off your things,’ she went on, releasing Maisie.

(5) The child, on her feet, was all emotion. (6) ‘Then I’m just to stop – this way?’

(7) ‘It will do as well as any other. (8) Sir Claude, tomorrow, will have your things brought.’

(9) ‘I’ll bring them myself. Upon my word I’ll see them packed!’ Sir Claude promised. (10) ‘Come here and unbutton.’

(11) He had beckoned his young companion to where he sat, and he helped to disengage her from her coverings while Mrs Beale, from a little distance, smiled at the hand he displayed. (12) ‘There’s a stepfather for you! (13) I’m bound to say, you know, that he makes up for the want of other people.’

(14) ‘He makes up for the want of a nurse!’ Sir Claude laughed. (15) ‘Don’t you remember I told you so the very first time?’

(16) ‘Remember? It was exactly what made me think so well of you!’

(17) ‘Nothing would induce me,’ the young man said to Maisie, ‘to tell you what made me think so well of her.’ (18) Having divested the child he kissed her gently and gave her a little pat to make her stand off. (19) The pat was accompanied with a vague sigh in which his gravity for a moment came back. (20) ‘All the same if you hadn’t had the fatal gift of beauty – !’

(21) ‘Well, what?’ Maisie asked, wondering why he paused. (22) It was the first time she had heard of her beauty.

(23) ‘Why we shouldn’t all be thinking so well of each other!’

(24) ‘He isn’t talking of personal loveliness – you’ve not that vulgar beauty my dear, at all,’ Mrs Beale explained. (25) ‘He’s just talking of plain dull charm of character.’

(26) ‘Her character’s the most extraordinary thing in the world,’ Sir Claude stated to Mrs Beale.

(27) ‘Oh I know all about that sort of thing!’ – she fairly bridled with the knowledge.

(28) It gave Maisie somehow a sudden sense of responsibility from which she sought refuge. (29) ‘Well, you’ve got it too, “that sort of thing” – you’ve got the fatal gift: you both really have!’ she broke out.

(30) ‘Beauty of character? (31) My dear boy, we haven’t a pennyworth!’ Sir Claude protested.

(32) ‘Speak for yourself, sir!’ leaped lightly from Mrs Beale. (33) ‘I’m good and I’m clever. (34) What more do you want? (35) For you, I’ll spare your blushes and not be personal – I’ll simply say that you’re as handsome as you can stick together.’

(36) ‘You’re both very lovely; you can’t get out of it!’ Maisie felt the need of carrying her point. (37) ‘And it’s beautiful to see you side by side.’

(Henry James (1897). What Maisie Knew. Heinemann: London, pp. 97–99)

*Activity 48*

Take the news reports that appear on the front page of a recent edition of a popular online newspaper and a more serious newspaper. Whose words are reported? Ordinary members of the public? Entertainment stars? Politicians? Are the sayers ever ambiguous because free forms are used without or with a delayed reporting clause?

Activity 49

Organisms, in order to survive, all have to develop feedback mechanisms of one kind or another. In the case of the human organism not only do we have the brain sending out messages to the muscles, giving orders to the limbs, but we have messages passing in the opposite direction from the nerve cells at the body's extremities to the spinal cord and up to the brain. If the brain makes a wrong or harmful decision, like telling the arm muscles to put the fingers in a fire, then the nerve cells experiencing intense heat will immediately send messages to the spinal cord/brain communicating pain, and the central nervous system will admit its mistake and withdraw the hand. It is difficult to see how any organism could remain healthy if these feedback messages to the decision-making centre were systematically stifled for long periods.

Imagine two intertextual contexts for this passage.

  1. A feature article on the advances in the effectiveness of the pain-killing sprays used by football players/athletes.
  2. A report showing that many politicians are devoting less and less time to their constituency surgeries/feedback sessions with the electorate.

How would the meanings of the text differ according to whether it was a reaction to (1) or (2)?

(Hint: In the context of (2) the 'organism' would be a metaphor for society, the brain would be the MP or government, etc.)

Activity 50

As a way of revising and summing up the ideas of this chapter, you might think about the following questions in relation to the Jeffries letter.

  1. How heterogeneous is this text? What different voices do you detect in it?
  2. When other writing (‘speech’) is represented, how is this done (FDS, DS, FIS, IS, NRSA)? Are the sources acknowledged?
  3. Do you think it’s a humorous parody, or is it serious? If you think it’s a parody can you link this to your analyses in (1) and (2)?

From Mr Barney Jeffries

(1) Sir: I feel I must reply to your attack on my hero Thomas the Tank Engine. As one who has read and re-read the stories many times, I hope I will be able to put you straight on a few points.

This opening sentence refers to the text to which the letter is replying. Often such reference is more explicit – see letter openings on pp. 147–148. Note the presupposition carried by the nominalisation attack. The writer also announces what he is about to do, useful in a long letter.

(2) You suggest that the morality which Thomas and friends offer is nothing more than Old Testament retribution. In fact, the message is that if you say you are sorry, you will be given ‘another chance’ (and probably end up pulling the special train). This surely represents a New Testament ethic of a loving Fat Controller who forgives all them who truly repent. And there are plenty of rewards for being good: a new coat of paint, a chance to pull the express or, the accolade, a branch line all to yourself.

The second paragraph has a kind of unequal balance structure, hinging around the in fact where the original text’s position is stated first and then demolished. The low certainty verb suggest is outweighed by the modal devices of high certainty in fact and surely. Notice the lexical contrasts ‘Old’ v. ‘New Testament’, and ‘retribution’ v. ‘reward’.
A new paragraph (3) for the second point, which concerns the Fat Controller. This paragraph gives specific evidence for the point stated in its first sentence.

(3) The Fat Controller is not some distant, unapproachable ruler. He listens to the petitions of the engines (see Thomas and Gordon’s alliance in Gordon the Big Engine and Percy’s deputation in The Twin Engines).

Paragraphs 3–5 are deductive in structure, moving from the general to the specific.

(4) The books also make us re-examine our prejudices; the likes of Daisy and Boo show that diesels are not all bad, and ‘sinners’ can often prove to be heroes.

 

(5) I can’t agree with Thomas Sutcliffe’s assertion that ‘there’s no altruism here’. Throughout the books, Thomas and friends continually work for the greater good of mankind (or, alternatively, enginekind). Often, the Fat Controller knows nothing of these deeds of the engines, being blessed with free-will make their own decisions. A good example of this is Douglas’ heroic rescue of Oliver in Enterprising Engines.

(5) The writer restates his position on Sutcliffe’s views.
A bit of humour lightens the interpersonal tone.
The themes of (5) are carefully chosen to underline the move from the general to the specific ‘throughout the books’, ‘often’ and ‘a good example’.

(6) The value system nurtured in my impressionable mind (as a child born the year before Mrs Thatcher came to power) was obviously different from Mr Sutcliffe’s son’s. My favourite engine was always Toby the Tram Engine, perfectly content with his one faithful coach, Henrietta, rather than proud possessors of many coaches like Gordon and Henry. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit their own stretch of branch line.

In (6) there is a telling presupposition that (story books) nurture value systems in impressionable minds; without such a belief this letter and the article which provokes it would be pointless or lack seriousness. There is a humorous inference that anyone born before Thatcher came to power is less likely to have a proud and competitive value system.

(7) Personally, I would like to wish Thomas and his friends a very happy 50th birthday, and best wishes for the next half century.

Yours faithfully,
BARNEY JEFFRIES
West Grinstead
Wiltshire

Paragraphs 6 and 7 are the most personal – 2–5 hardly mention the writer, but (7) climaxes in a personal birthday greeting.

Project 2

You might like to write a letter to a national or local newspaper on an issue that has been mentioned in a recent news report or feature article in that paper. After conferencing with your peers/teacher you should really send it off to the paper, and see if they publish it. When you present it as an assignment it will be useful if it is accompanied by a commentary in note form in which you justify the choice of language you have made.

Obviously it’s best to choose an issue that interests you, and which you either know something about or can research to justify your opinions when necessary.

Though this letter will probably not be a parody, look at Reading between the railway lines and the comments in the margin of that letter. Several discourse structure features are important in such letters:

  • to refer carefully to the text you are reacting to early in the letter;
  • to state your position on the issue clearly;
  • to allocate a paragraph to each separate point, and usually deductively to put the point first in the paragraph;
  • to use appropriate stack or balance (or chain or step) structures for your paragraphs;
  • to cite evidence for your opinions, generally towards the end of the paragraph;
  • to carefully choose the themes and develop the thematic progression of the paragraph and letter.

Particular areas of this book that you could apply to this letter will be the section on paragraph structures in Chapter 1, Chapter 3 on interpersonal features of the text, the section on presupposition in Chapter 4, and that on politeness in Chapter 5. If you wish, you can also analyse how different participants are represented as powerful or powerless in your letter, using the kind of analysis done in Chapter 2.

The whole project could be around 1,000 words, with the letter taking two-thirds and the commentary notes one-third.

Quiz

Further Reading

Further reading for Chapter 6

  1. The theory of intertextuality originates with Julia Kristeva (1974: 59-60). Charles Bazerman’s chapter 4 ‘Intertextuality: How Texts Rely on Other Texts’ provides a useful background and details on levels and techniques of intertextuality.

    • Bazerman, C. and Prior, P.A. (2004). What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices. London and Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
    • Kristeva, J. (1974). La revolution du langage poétique. Paris: Seuil. (Partially translated by M. Waller (1984). Revolution in Poetic Language. New York: Columbia University Press).

  2. There are many accounts of the representation of speech and thought. Leech and Short in Style in Fiction chapter 10 provide a thorough and accessible account. A modification of their scheme can be found in Hutchinson’s ‘Speech presentations in fiction...’ A more recent account using corpus data can be found in Semino and Short’s book.

    • Hutchinson, T. (1989). Speech presentation in fiction with reference to The Tiger Moth by HE Bates. Reading, Analyzing and Teaching Literature/Ed. by Mick Short. London, 120-145.
    • Leech, G. N., & Short, M. (1981). Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. New York; London: Longman.
    • Semino, E. & Short, M. (2004). Corpus stylistics: Speech, writing and thought presentation in a corpus of English writing. London: Routledge.

  3. A useful exploration of Bakhtin’s theory of many-voiced or diglossic texts can be found in Holquist’s Dialogism. Mary Talbot in ‘The Construction of Gender in a Teenage Magazine’ analyses a feature article on lipstick, and draws attention to the different voices heard.

    • Holquist, M. (1990). Dialogism: Bakhtin and his world. London: Routledge.
    • Talbot, M. (1992). The construction of gender in a teen-age magazine. In Fairclough, N. (ed.). Critical Language Awareness, Harlow: Longman, pp. 174-199

  4. Allan Bell’s The Language of News Media, pages 44-50, gives an insider’s account of the different stages of transmission of messages in the news production process, and the opportunities for change and distortion which this communicative chain presents.

    • Bell, A. (1991). The language of news media. Cambridge, MA; Oxford, UK: Blackwell.