Intertextuality (the New Critical Idiom) Apr 2026

In his seminal book Intertextuality (The New Critical Idiom) , Graham Allen argues that no text possesses independent meaning. Instead, every work is a "tissue of quotations" woven from previous systems, codes, and traditions. Core Concepts and Origins

: Julia Kristeva introduced "intertextuality" in 1967, deriving it from Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the "dialogic imagination". Intertextuality (The New Critical Idiom)

: Meaning does not lie "inside" a work to be extracted by a reader; it exists in the network of relations between the text and all other texts to which it refers. In his seminal book Intertextuality (The New Critical

Intertextuality is shaped through various compositional strategies, as detailed by Allen and other scholars: INTERTEXTUALITY-The New Critical Idiom - Academia.edu : Meaning does not lie "inside" a work

: Reading becomes a process of "moving between texts," as the reader identifies the echoes and influences that shape their understanding. Key Features and Techniques