Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, J. Porter

Review

The focus of the text on intertextuality and the Discourse Community applies itself very well into the technological world of today.  Porter’s argument revolves around a few key aspects; the first concept being the idea of “iterability”, or the repeatability of certain texts (i.e. citation, allusions, references, and quotations) (Porter 35).  The example of Once Upon a Time is used to grapple with the idea that when you hear that phrase you not only think about one specific book that has used that phrase—you are in fact speaking of a genre of children fairy tales. The understood conclusion of his example is that “texts not only refers to but in fact contain other texts” (36). Then you might ask, “How does this relate to the world of today?”

Take a meme for example, the image that is selected is normally a recognizable photograph from some television show, etc. Then, the added element of text is used to create a piece of work that not only refers to the show, but says something funny about what is going on in the world around them.  

What I enjoy the most about this article is that Porter plays with the idea of plagiarism. What really can be called plagiarism if intertextuality is not only common, but enjoyed (I like witty memes)? If I use Once Upon a Time to start a novel I am writing, I am using the exact words of previous authors without giving them credit for their “genius”. Another article that explains this very well is Ecstasy of Influence where the author plagiarizes his entire article (but he cites the original authors at the end). Can a creative writer just borrow texts?

Honestly, I think that the answer is yes, but to a degree. The article that I linked into this page is an example of a VERY smart author that can over use other people’s writing to the point where you think “what did you do?---nothing?---yeah, I see that…” .

What I also would like to note is that I have discussed the differences of plagiarism and intertextuality in three classes so far this semester. This is no small topic, and everyone is interested. The end conclusions in the other two courses have been that they like allusions, quotes, and references to other writing-movies-plays-etc , but they don’t think that you should just “copy” someone’s writing. Shakespeare’ Romeo and Juliet is ok though because he “goes beyond” Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe (Which I think directly relates to what Porter is talking about in his section on Discourse Communities!).

An author must reside in a discourse community in which to write. The theory is that the community “shares assumptions about what objects are appropriate for examination and discussion” therefore creating a boundary for the author might write within (Porter 39). The author has a structure and a constraint to write within; however, after the author hears to normal conventions, they must “assert the will against those in the community constraints to effect change” (Porter 44). The general class “approval” of Shakespeare might come from the idea that, yes, he borrowed the ideas, but he added to the discursive community as he created his play.