Introduction: Literature and the Visual Arts; Questions of Influence and Intertextuality Author(s): Margarete Landwehr Reviewed work(s):

Source: College Literature, Vol. 29, No. 3, Literature and the Visual Arts (Summer, 2002), pp. 1-16 Published by: College Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112655 . Accessed: 02/04/2012 08:55
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and Literature the Visual Introduction: Arts; of Influence and Questions Intertextuality
Margarete Landwehr

reading of the articles in this collection, which focus on the cross-fertilization between literary and visual works of art and tele including paintings, icons, magazine and vision film, prompts opera, advertising, on the nature of intertextuality reflections and the need for a theoretical framework a discussion of the essays. This overview will of intertextuality include theories origins general and the debate these theorists, the difference between regarding and intertextuality. applications and the It will, practical "camps," between for of the

Landwehr

isAssociate

Professor

West Chester of German at University. She has published

articles on Heinrich von Kleist writers and

and works such

byfin-de-siecle Schnitzler

as Arthur

Josef Roth.

of the concept of intertextuality, the to American of scholars response it sparked influence

as well, consider of the theories of both

relationship significant and postmodernist intertextuality texts. A separate section briefly outlines a tax onomy of intertextuality proposed by Gerard and use Genette, which provides categories ful terms for understanding and discussing some of the myriad intertextual relationships.

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature The serviceable and vocabulary concepts to the essays in this volume in this section will be provided terms in of influence and inter

applied, finally,
textuality.

and Barthes Bakhtin, Kristeva, Origins: term intertextuality, to connote the structur generally understood two or more between texts, became popular in the late 1960s as an alternative serve as an anti strategy to studying literary texts that would The al relations dote
ar can

to historically
uncover an

oriented
authors

approaches.The
intentions, the

historicist
sources of

assumes
his/her

that a schol
ideas, and

readers. Key terms of this approach are "influ responses of contemporary an earlier text ence" and "inspiration." The concept of influence privileges a a as over one source. acts later it for which (or artist) Conversely, inspira over the tion regards the later text (or artist) as an innovative improvement previous one. As early as the 1940s, however, Rene Wellek and Austin Warren the of influence studies by questioned predominance nineteenth-century a a are out text: in of dilemma the historical "There pointing investigation simply no data (Morgan dled with are completely in literary history which neutral Tacts'" texts and studies of influence were rid l).1 Thus, choice of

1985, "value judgments." This shift from historicism with its tracing of sources as Thai's to and of influence, marked, literary origins intertextuality a to different studies: notes, Morgan dramatically literary approach
By of shifting our attention from the triangle of author/work/tradition replaces synchronic strategic and of the evolutionary model change of literature the to that model as a of sign text/discourse/culture,

literary system. text it up

with history The most salient psychological, an apparently

intertextuality a structural or effect of

this

is to free determinisms, with other

literary opening texts, or

from to

sociological, infinite play

historical relationships

semiosis. (Morgan 1985, 1) Although Julia Kristeva coined the term intertextuality, Mikhail Bakhtin, is regarded as having initiated the concept. In whose ideas she popularized, in 1929, Bakhtin criticizes Problems ofDostoevsky's Poetics, originally published historicist literary criticism and its views that the novel consists of a homog
enous representation of reality, expresses an author's opinions, or reveals his

or her psychology. the concept of the "polyphonic" Instead, he proposes a which includes of idiolects novel, variety employed by characters as well as
extra-literary texts such as newspaper articles or anecdotes and, consequent

ly, offers fers from dethrones

a multiplicity dominant

of ways a realist work by ideologies

of viewing "reality." A polyphonic its "carnivalistic" stance, which or institutions. system" Thus,

novel

dif

demonstrates

the 'Jolly relativity of every

parodically the polyphonic novel (Morgan, 1985, 11; empha

Landwehr 3 Margarete sis in original). As Morgan points out, Bakhtin s notion of the carnivalization a theory of intertextuality of Uterature constitutes in 1966 while Kristeva the term "intertextualite" introduces Julia s and Bakhtin notion of carnivalization: explaining dialogism
a the static hewing of texts with replace not in exist is but literary simply generated a to another structure. What to struc allows relation dimension dynamic as an intersection sur is his conception turalism of the 'literary word' textual of a as a fixed writ rather than several among (a point meaning), dialogue faces Bakhtin was one of the first to model where structure does ings: rary that or of the writer, cultural the addressee (or the 1986, character) 35-36; and the contempo in original)

earlier

context.

(Kristeva

emphasis

substitutes the term "text" for upon Bakhtin s theory, Kristeva Building out Bakhtin's axis that the "horizontal" of "word" and points to and the axis text/context "vertical" of the bring light subject/addressee of words that "each word (text) is an intersection (texts) important discovery can con at least one other word read" Bakhtin be where (1986, 37). (text) sidered "writing as a reacting of the anterior literary corpus and the text as an absorption of and reply to another text" (39). Consequently, this translin intertextual the guistic science enables readers to understand relationships: to word "the status of mediator, linking structural models (or text) occupies her cultural (historical) environment" Bakhtin's (37; emphasis). Employing intertextual concept of dialogism, Kristeva outlines a new approach to poet ic texts in which notions such as authorship, causality, and finality are abol she regards any text as constructed from "amosaic of quotations" ished.Thus, that "the notion

of intertextuality replaces that of intersubjec in tivity" (37; emphasis original). two years later in 1968, Roland In "Death of the Author," written Barthes introduces similar ideas when he states that writing the constitutes destruction
notion of an

and concludes

of

every

voice
which

and of
he regards

every
as a

point
product

of origin.

Abolishing
human

the

author,

of Renaissance

ism and capitalism, and of origins, Barthes claims that the text does not con sist of a line of words "releasing a single 'theological' meaning (the 'message' a variety of of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which none a of them original, blend and clash. The text is tissue of quo writings, both Kristeva centres of culture" (1977, 146). Thus, the concept of an author that "fathers" a replace amosaic or an impersonal blending or inter text with that of intertextuality, inter and Kristeva, then, distinguish secting of various texts. Both Barthes a of of notion from the traditional influence, textuality causality, of principle a is that associated with in the which of prior methodology, meaning origins, a text is traced back to the author s intention. tations drawn from the innumberable and Barthes

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature andIntentionality American Theorists: Influence Reviving Whereas or "sources" theorists, boundaries boundaries points Barthes and Kristeva refuse to allow the concepts of "author" to overlap with that of anonymous as Jay Clayton and Eric Rothstein note, between influence and nonexistent. intertextuality Susan Stanford to define intertextuality, American have questioned the firm and even perceive these for example, of intertextu

as virtually out that Kristeva

s use of Bakhtin

Friedman, her concept

of influence that and, conversely, observes ality itself depicts the principles was "the discourse of intertextuality already implicit in the study of literary influences as amethodology" (1991, 155). In particular, Friedman notes that scholars of American intertextual criticism generally ignore the "death of the author" Harold Culler and Bloom claims discusses the contributions (1973, 1975) that the concept from the anonymous, in the debate of Jonathan Culler (1981) and vs. influence. of intertextuality can be situated in a spec of intertextuality infinite intertexuality (Culler has noted of Barthes that Bloom's to the defi

trum ranging finite, dyadic intertextuality nition of influence often conceive texts" "the it, means [Bloom person,"

of Bloom. resembles

that there are no

of authors with their precursors in an as to Barthes's textual and sub codes, anonymous rivalry Oedipal opposed mits a definition of intertextuality that straddles both extremes. Culler situ ates a text in "a prior body of discourse?other projects and thoughts which or explicitly takes up, prolongs, cites, refutes, transforms" 1991, (Friedman 156). of intertextuality that allows supports a redefinition Similarly, Friedman K. the American feminist Nancy for the concept of agency. She employs as a useful model. a type of gynocriticism, of "arachnology," Miller's method Miller's methodology blends Barthes's notion of the text as a "web" with it implicitly American the importance of the author. Miller's arach a as a text of other cultural and historical weaving nology acknowledges and advocates "the texts, but refuses to accept Barthes's notion of anonymity In place of "anonymous central to feminist criticism. author" as a concept feminists' proposes "a political intertextuality" textuality" Miller a with social form of the dominant negotiation ily 158-59). The art historian Michael Baxandall adds another that remains necessar text" (Friedman 1991, stress on

1975, 3].) Culler the confrontation

as I "Influence, intertextuality, between texts, but only relationships the idea of observes that Bloom reintroduces that of

twist to the influence

vs. intertextuality debate and implicitly supports the notion of agency when runs from the later to the earlier he argues that the line of intentionality turns the theory of influence on its head and resembles artist. This viewpoint traditional theories of inspiration as it portrays the successor not as a passive

Landwehr 5 Margarete
or an

recipient who

of reshapes

the

predecessor's precursor's of

ideas material: art criticism about

techniques,

but

rather

active

agent

the

"Influence" ed

is a curse

grammatical seems to reverse and the

prejudice the

who

active/passive beholder

because of its wrong-head primarily is the agent and who the patient: actor expe relation which the historical will wish to take into account. If one

it

riences

inferential

says that X influenced Y it does seem that one is saying that X did some thing toY rather thanY did something to X. But in the consideration of
good If we pictures think ofY and painters rather the second as the draw than X diversified: recourse react revive, relations . . . is always the more lively reality. the is much richer agent, vocabulary to avail oneself on, resort of, appro refer paraphrase, travesty, around?in to, pick up, take

and more priate on, from, engage

attractively have with, on, these

to, adapt, misunderstand, . . . to, quote, copy, address, remodel, be stated ape,

absorb,

make . . . of

a variation Most of

continue, cannot

emulate, way

the other

parody. terms

acting onY

rather thanY acting on X.

(Baxandall 1985, 58-59)

an artist and the means with which of intentionality a the material forth consciously predecessor's brings question of one awareness to in turn, leads ask if varying degrees of motive, which, might to one distinction between influence and intertextuality contribute (Clayton are various obstacles, however, in a practical application of 1991, 30).There of agency and intentionality, the concept of intentionality. Notions of course, at risk reinstating traditional psychologistic concepts of artistic production Baxandall's concept transforms the trail to deter culturalist explanations. Moreover, can be rife with potential obstacles and pitfalls. While mining intentionality the influence of previously written works on later ones can be quite obvi that authors ous, such as in the case of parody or pastiche, it is conceivable the cost of understating may from works ideas, plots, or motifs inadvertently appropriate an can artist years earlier. Conversely, deliberately employ/subvert
texts/codes as, for example, when parodying a certain genre or writing

they read cultural

style.

On

the other

Weltanschauung tingly
author's

employs
intention

in the artist's hand, these codes may be so "embedded" or so enmeshed in his/her idiolect that the writer unwit or verifying to discerning an them. Despite the barriers
or awareness of appropriating specific sources or cultural

are serviceable of agency, influence, and intentionality texts, the concepts ones particularly when the influence of a previous work or artist is obvious and/or verifiable and significant in comprehending the subsequent one. in abolishing The difficulty the concept of agency especially when to analyze a literary or artistic work becomes one evident when attempting to the of scholars who have elaborate and essays peruses system attempted either of influence or of intertextuality atize various elements/aspects The concept of an author is explictly present, of course, in the former, but also

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature who describe texts in terms of inter terms that suggest agency and allude to textuality employ notions of sources and influence. A brief discussion of two models, each from implicitly alluded and cultural codes one camp, will illustrate this point. In "Influence vs. Intertextuality," Ulla Musarra-Schroeder argues for the of the concept of influence and sketches out three types of First, an artist or writer may be influenced by philosophical, psy or or ideas from individual thinkers their scientific sociological,
an influence can consist of formal, stylistic, structural, or

to in the latter. Those

rehabilitation influence. chological,

works.

Second,

compositional
style or contain

principles.
particular

The model
structural

text could
devices that

represent
the

a certain

genre

or

successor

appropriates.

Third, she restricts the concept of influence to include "only those phenom ena which in some way have directed the process of creation of a text, the This itself in process of influence "may manifest writing process" (1996,170).
various tional, ways or formal in certain order or schemes sometimes or patterns also in of semantic, stylistic, composi such as concrete inter-textemes

quotations Lauro elements" tence

or allusions" Zavala

(170).

a text as "the weaving of meaningful (1995) designates as "the rules that determine the exis and defines intertextuality elements for intertextual of the net." He outlines analysis including:

to text and intertext such as the sociolect common cartography" and "intertextual strategies" such as allusion, ekphrasis, quotation, parody, pla and paradox. If and giarism, pastiche as well as irony, hyperbole, metaphor, sociolect suggests cultural or linguistic codes, then intertextual strategies such as ekphrasis and parody assume an author, who deliberately borrows from "discursive
and transforms previous texts.Thus, when actually analyzing a concrete text,

camps clearly articulate the need to assume sources for that text as well as cultural and social intertexts. theorists of both and Postmodernism Intertextuality

an agency

and

a No historical overview of intertextuality would be complete without intertextual discussion, however brief, of the significant relationship between In his valuable survey of theories of intertextuality, ity and postmodernism. that double-codedness observation Graham Allen discusses Linda Hutcheon's of postmodern literature. This double-codedness in culture while of representation acknowledging questions states that post-modernism is that it still must apply these modes. Hutcheon to it it "works subvert" since within the very systems attempts contradictory constitutes available modes and is, thus, double-coded in modernism's perceives used in postmodern the nostalgia she (Allen 2000, 189). Juxtaposing the irony often intertextual use of past forms with works when utilizing similar forms, she notes: a central feature

MargareteLandwehr 7 When
ly this continuity of similarity.

Eliot recalled Dante

call that

or Virgil

in The Waste Land, one sensed a kind

It is precise echoing. it is often ironic dis difference in some at the heart sense, for it

of wishful

to continuity beneath the fragmented in postmodern is contested where parody at the heart of continuity, that is revealed . . . Parody is a perfect postmodern form,

paradoxically
also other forces

both

incorporates
interrogations

and challenges
or of originality liberal

that which
that humanist

it parodies.
with assumptions.

It

a reconsideration

of origin

is compatible

postmodern

(Hutcheon

1988,11)

a postmodernist not merely form of intertextuality, Parody constitutes as a self-reflexive but also functions that the mode of strategy foregrounds itself. Postmodernist works their representation simultaneously acknowledge on established dependence "doxa," and disturb or even Barthes calls what representation, these forms, "paradoxa" (Allen 2000, of the forms of representation and, conse 190). This radical questioning a of within modes culture, through parody foregrounds, quently, knowledge as Hutcheon states, "the poUtics of representation" (Allen 2000, 190). Thus, such parody, which "points in two directions impUes a type of self-reflexivity, forms subvert at once, towards the events being represented in the narrative and toward the act of narration itself (191). Thus postmodern fiction depends on intertextu al practice, which has an intended destabiUzing effect within such fiction, on and manipulates the tension between because it focuses attention fact and fiction, between the constructed and the real (193). of

andInterarts of Intertextuality Relations Genette's Taxonomy the major French theorists, only the structuralist Gerard Genette a out in a trilogy of works of intertextuality detailed sketches taxonomy (1992,1997a, 1997b).2 As Graham AUen observes, "the essential thrust of the in that it denies the structuralist project seems to be toward the intertextual, Of existence nature, Genette
erature

be

their systematic and relational objects and emphasizes or texts other artworks" (2000, 96). In this trilogy, they literary a theory of "transtextuality," which as AUen produces explains from the viewpoint
"transtextual,"

of unitary

"intertextuality
as

of structural poetics"
or a second-degree

(98). Perceiving
construct created

lit
out

essentiaUy

out ways in which relationships can texts be systematicaUy between interpreted and subdivides transtextuali he rejects the idea that aU types of ty into five categories.3 Significantly, must be into a text's fabric. "transtextuality" implicit, deeply interwoven of shards of other texts, Genette maps first category, "intertextuality" which he defines as "a relation or two texts between among several texts" and as "the ship of copresence text within actual presence of one is not the same concept another" Genette's

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature into 1-2). Genette's intertextuality redefining and plagia aUusion (the most "impUcit"), texts. a pragmatic and easily identifiable between rism?offers relationship one text as indicates and criticism that such poetics, Uterary "Metatextuality" (1997a, employed by Kristeva three subcategories?quotation,
serves as commentary on another.

as "any is defined by Genette focus of Palimpsests, "hypertextuaUty," an a to earlier text I B caU shaU the (which 'hypertext') relationship uniting it is grafted in a text A (I shaU, of course, caU it the 'hypotext') upon which manner that is not that of commentary" (5). (The Oxford English Dictionary The defines as "a parchment, etc. which has been written upon "palimpsest" out that AUen been rubbed the twice, out.") points having original writing to use term is indi of the of and Genette's writing "palimpsests suggest layers cate literature's existence in 'the second degree,'

its non-original rewriting of in this category, what has already been written" (2000, 108). Particularly relations between and self-conscious is concerned with intended Genette texts, especiaUy in terms of specific genres, "I mean a category of texts which certain canonical genres such as pastiche, encompass (though minor) whoUy aU also touches upon other genres?probably parody, travesty, and which devotes genres" (AUen 2000, 108). Genette such which transformations hypertextual are or created reductions, amplifications definition has observed, Genette's Morgan traditional notions of influence and sources concerning the verification the bulk of his study on ways in as self expurgations, excisions, out of particular As hypotexts. of hypertextuaUty resembles the not and does advance the debate

of intentionality of sources and determination terms in dis useful offers Genette's such flaws, taxonomy (1985, 31). Despite intertextual and relationships. cussing analyzing deals with Genette's taxonomy of transtextuality literary texts, Although to analyze interarts relations. Towards the end of it can also be employed can be applied to the prac Palimpsests, he claims that his literary taxonomy like tices of art in the second degree or "hyperesthetics." (Although Genette, theorist and drama German the eighteenth-century Lessing, playwright type of art has its own rules.) As wiU be demonstrated, some of and systematize enables one to characterize Genette's terminology the arts. the relationships between claims that each Genette: ofCuller and The Theories Applications
If Genette's terms enable one to classify the nature of inter-textual rela

tions, CuUer offers a broader scope: his schema of influence and intertextu a spectrum clearly provides one pragmatic and flex ality as opposite ends of

Landwehr 9 Margarete not these two opposing, but (apparently) for discussing refers to exclusive views. Influence (and Genette's hyptertextuality)

ible

framework

mutually a finite, dyadic intertextuality and suggests specific source (s) for a text and intention. The anonymous, infinite intertextuality of Barthes and authorial
Kristeva, discourses, on the codes, other or hand, texts encompasses that an artist the may cultural, deliberately historical, employ or political or that

a work. implicitly exist within serve as prime examples The two introductory essays on Plath s poems In "Sylvia Plath's of the two extreme ends of Culler's spectrum. traces Lutz how Transformations of Modernist par Paintings," Sherry Zivley ticular paintings serve as sources for a dozen of Plath s poems, a clear case of seems more The term intertextuality, however, appro influence/inspiration. s common in discussion revisions of Plath of Marsha concepts priate Bryant's of fifties consumerism and advertising's ideal images of domestic life in The and the Art of Advertising." latter illustrates the "Plath, Domesticity In particular, Plath codes with individual discourse. of cultural intermingling weaves consumer into the fabric of her poems the discourse of American
culture from mainstream images in popular women's magazines and in tele

that depict secular myths role. regarding the housewife's advertising of American adver Bryant states that the rhetoric, images, and mythologies s own to of Plath ambivalent construction tising helped shape domesticity the stance of parody and satire. Her and female agency, which go beyond vision in a consumer culture and poems depict domestic woman's complex position 1950s social codes regarding gender roles and both reinforce and question power in relationships. the influence of images on Plath s poetry. Zivley s article also examines how Plath reworks the codes of consumer Whereas discusses culture Bryant traces the sources of Plath s poems back to particular in advertising, Zivley
modernist paintings and examines the various ways the poet transforms these

a painting would art works into poems. At times when spark a vital of a painting with into her own life, Plath would conflate memories admitted that art was "her (She tionally charged personal experiences. or indirect references to est source of inspiration.") Plath s descriptive

insight emo deep specif inter

ic paintings fit neatly into Genette's of allusion, but, more subcategory esting is the inspiration the paintings provoke in Plath in the form of "emo art tional recognition of parallel visual and emotional analogies between works poems and her own such as Plath social, familial, and emotional experiences." Ekphrastic s and John Keats s famous "Ode on a Grecian Urn" are

or pro usually trigger strong emotions inspired by images or objects, which as defines ekphrasis found insights in the poet. Jean Hagstrum succinctly to mute voice the otherwise and The "giving language object" (1958, 18).

10

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature mood

nificant,

or idea that an artwork

of course, than any

inspires

in the poet
description

(and reader)
of the

ismore
object.

sig

accurate

poetic

also explores how images, in this case, Russian icons, in in and Eikon Rilke's inspired poems "Beyond Ekphrasis: Logos poetry." of ekphrasis as a "text that Cushman borrows Amy Golahny's definition Jennifer Cushman
expresses the poet-reader-viewer reaction to actual or imagined works of

widens the ekphrasis debate into the speculative realms of writer In her discussion of the inspiration of intent and reader-response (1996,13).4 Russian icons on Rilke's works, she links theories of ekphrasis with that of If the former deals with icon theology. Orthodox the potential for art to impact life directly, the scriptural word mately dow between transforms the behavior then the latter views "the function of the icon to make a change in perception, and ulti palpable, to occasion of the believer." In particular, the icon serves as a "win

art" which

the earthly and celestial worlds" that conveys divine light and to convey this spiritual the viewer; its colors in particular were considered the poet as a priest/artist, felt it presence. Similarly, RUke, who was the artist's duty to bring the spiritual into corporeal In his existence. famous invokes "Duineser the holiness and "Life of Maria" Rilke ("Marienleben"), Elegies" sometimes of the angels and the Madonna through use not concludes that Rilke's the poems do merely describe

of color. Cushman

icons ekphrasticaUy; rather, he constructs the poem to reproduce the experi ence of contemplating an icon by inspiring in the reader contemplation and Russian icons revelation. The intertextual between the that relationship and his poems seems too strong to reduce it to amere "aUu inspired Rilke
sion," one of Genette's categories of intertextuality.

If iconic Biblical announces

of Mary representations of Annunciation the description

inspired Rilke's scene in which

then the poems, the angel Gabriel

to Mary the mother of God that she wiU become inspired a van of the theme of Rohr "The Susan Scaff's essay Virgin plethora paintings, in Italian Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance." Annunciate One can frame Medieval Madonna the changing in terms of shifting codes. of the Madonna depictions of of reflect the cult adoration that surrounded the Mary portrayals in the Middle Ages in which she was regarded as a veritable god paintings of the Annunciation, the chaste virgin of the Bible
beauty, even, in some

dess of popular worship. Renaissance as both other hand, reinterpret Mary

descendant of Eve, a paragon of

on the and as a
cases, an

feminine

object scene support Kristeva's ity that "no intertextual

of erotic desire. The

of the Annunciation variety of reinterpretations to valuable contribution the debate on intertextual citation is ever innocent or edited or direct, but always trans in some way in order to (Morgan 1985, 22). In this case, the

formed, distorted, displaced, condensed, suit the speaking subject's value system"

Landwehr 11 Margarete scene from demure vir of Mary's role in the Annunciation woman not to reflects the of gin, only painter's incorporation alluring young her human and spiritual identity, but also his his society's codes concerning stance in towards religion. Her society's increasingly physical attractiveness transformation reveals that society's increasingly secular val depictions to in its shift focus from the the human. ues, spiritual The Messages Similarly, in "Art, Literature and the Harlem Renaissance: the later Renaissance of God's Trombones'9 Anne of Biblical arts marks a reinterpretation codes of the dominant culture to an emphasis shift away from conventional on their own culture. In God's Trombones, a collection of poems by James and the visual Weldon illustrations by Aaron Douglas, both artists emphasize Johnson with to and of blacks in Biblical history by drawing the importance attention narra of omission African-Americans from the traditional these redressing tives. Carroll discusses how African-Americans the artistic conventions of the Harlem of mainstream Renaissance to subvert American demonstrates Carroll scenes in their poetry how African-Americans'

soci attempted in Johnson's poetic and Douglas's visual represen ety in their art as depicted sermons. Their artistic revisions of established tations of black preachers' Biblical myths along with the subversion of traditional aesthetic codes can be in terms of the conflicting values and discourses of a dominant formulated a and the interactions subordinate minority. Carroll also examines majority texts. She analyzes how the illustrations between the visual and the written
serve as a visual counterpoint to the poems and reinforce certain aspects of

their message. Douglas's poetry and complement

sentations of African-Americans.

pictures the poems'

underline attempt

meanings only suggested to challenge established

illustrations serve

in the repre

Because

the

as commen

could argue that they have a "metatextual" (Genette's to the the juxtaposition of poem and poetry. Moreover, term) relationship illustration underscores the various ways in which each medium represents his the sermons. Carroll states that Johnson's poetic innovations demonstrate to of formal elements of poetry reflect aspects of the preach manipulation ers' delivery, while the illustrations in motion. ing figures The distinctive scene prompt suggest movement and vitality by arrest

tary on the poems,

one

an idea or a in which each medium ways reinterprets a brief discussion of the debate on the fundamental differences and the visual arts, a distinction made by of any study of interarts relations. In modern theatre critic and theorist Enlightenment

of literature (and similarities) Aristotle and a central concern

the influential times, it was established Gotthold essentialist between categories Ephraim Lessing who refers both poetry and the visual arts in his seminal essay "Laokoon," which to a famous Hellenistic sculpture as well as toVirgil's work. Lessing associat

12

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature literature and spatiality with and sculpture. painting temporaUty with over art he he when literature Moreover, argued that the artist, privileged in time and then from unlike the writer, could only portray a single moment only one point of view. As Bryan Wolf of the visual with nonverbal immediacy
of presentness," Lessing's spatiality, whereas

ed

points

associations out, conventional arts to the visual the "myth consign

the modern world associates rhet

oric, which

implies agrees with exclusively with language (1990, 185). Wolf states that "there is no essential difference between poetry and painting" or no in its structure is less rhetorical that argues ideological "painting literature"

amanipulation

of "facts" or words

in order

to influence, Tom MitcheU who and than

cites Emerson's assertion that the sister arts of (1986, 184). Wolf a are common structure and that united in rhetorical painting and literature are sociaUy mediated in order to suggest a tradition aU forms of knowledge distinct from not to distinguish from Lessing's, one that is "concerned literature but to reunify them under the common banner of no can ever act states He tation" (1990,198-99). that of perception cent or original, that "the key to the interpretive process does not painting represen be inno lie in the

of the object interpreted" and that "painting and Uterature alike must be engaged as rhetorical constructs" (191). His assertion that both a poem a signifying system" reflects and a painting are "part of a circuit of meanings, nature the influence relations The of Kristeva and Barthes and incorporates a study of interart into the earlier discussion of intertextualty last two essays deal with a particular type of intertextuality, Genette's refers to any relationship uniting one text to an ear "hypertextuaUty," which of influence and sources. In suggests the concepts of of the Dancing "Modernity's Revision Daughter: The Salome Narrative examines and Strauss," Carmen TrammeU Wilde's Wilde appropria Skaggs tion of the Bibilical Salome legend as weU as Richard Strauss s transforma lier one and which Orson WeUes's text into the Ubretto for his opera. Jeffrey Adams analyzes film adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel in" Orson WeUes's The and the Kafkaesque." Both articles discuss how social dis Trial: Film Noir tion of Wilde's courses?political/social
enced Strauss's and WeUes's

ideology

or

cinematic
of

codes?respectively,
anterior texts. anti-Semitism,

influ

reinterpretation

dramatic colored either Wilde's views, and the cult of decadence or Strauss's musical versions of the Salome figure. WeUes appro deliberately in film film his noir cinemat the codes of and and expressionist priates style orientalist texts, Skaggs seeks to demon reacts and responds to the cultural strate how each "individual interpreter writer and artistic ideologies of his own time." The Decadent and homosex ualWUde develops the themes of orientalism and counter-cultural ethics in of the Kafkaesque. ic interpretation In her discussion ofWilde's and Strauss's

Landwehr 13 Margarete love story of thwarted of the Salome and John the Baptist reworking a to in order social desire and perverse revenge present critique of gender attended a performance of and notions of sexuality. Strauss, who ideologies reacts to in Berlin, "Kleines Theatre" Salome in Max Reinhardt's Wilde's his
nineteenth-century German culture by reinterpreting Wilde's perverse sex

ual

of and by caricaturing Jews in an anti-Semitic reinterpretation as transition from the values that the orientalism. Just accompanied changing the Middle Ages to the Renaissance influenced depictions of the Madonna, so too, the sexual and racial codes of fin-de-siecle England and Wilhelmine themes sexual racism

Wilde Germany inspired different portrayals of Salome. If challenges then Strauss depicts in his opera the prevailing and gender ideologies, of his society. In his visual Welles

of Kafka's expressionist novel The Trial, reinterpretation idiom of German film (which the cinematic Expressionist employs as a such mise-en-scene the film noir style) especially influenced techniques a camera set and of chiaroscuro claustrophobic design, oblique angles, light of the conventions of literary replicates Kafka's violations in his novel with noir style, which his expressionist/film subverts realism to achieve a destabilizing established codes of cinematic effect on the realism audience.

and shadow.Welles

to reproduce the spiritual experience of attempts Just as Rilke Russian icons in his poetry, so, too,Welles of replicates the Kafkaesque mood emotional of and of entrapment uncertainty anxiety, paranoia, claustrophobic of the film noir and guilt, and of disorientation through his appropriation on s screen illustrates text of Kafka's Welles the style. imaginative portrayal
Baxandall's decessor's reworks the observation ideas, techniques, material that the or successor themes, to produce is not but, a a passive is an recipient active in of agent a pre who right. rather, masterpiece

precursor's

its own

Conclusion an acknowledged branch of study of interarts relations has become in and Literature elsewhere with the United States, societies, Comparative to devoted the and interarts conferences of relations study journals, a new notion of (Weisstein 1993, l).5 Moreover, ignores the intertextuality The boundaries the semiotics between art and non-art of culture have focused studies of (Morgan 1985, 34). Recent on the intertextuality between aesthet related domains of study interdisciplinary

ic and social texts. An intertextual, of knowledge marks a radical departure from Lessing's division of the arts into distinct categories and from the sharply defined boundaries among dis a creative with the instituted medieval universities offers and ciplines approach to the study of literature and the arts.

14

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature Notes

1 Morgan the theory Thai's and theorists Derrida, provides of a cogent and succinct He overview focuses Frye, His on Bloom, article of the development and of some Levi a thor

practice

intertextuaHty. Bakhtin, and

European de also

American Strauss,

including

Kristeva, Genette.

Saussure, contains

Barthes,

Riffaterre,

oughly
cism vs.

researched bibliography. Key

intertextuality on and and of Bakhtin

ideas of my preliminary
are culled from his

discussion (2000) which

of histori
updat

detailed

study. An

ed book-length
chapters feminism sion

history of intertextuality
Bakhtin, Kristeva; and postcolonialism; scholars. key to AUen's

is Graham Allen's
Barthes; Genette Space

contains
Bloom, discus

Sausurre,

and Riffaterre; limits restrict my

postmodernism.

to a few 2 I am

indebted

succinct

summary

of

these

three

voluminous

works

(2000). The first two volumes were originaUy published in 1979 and 1982, respec tively, the original publication date of the third was not available.
3 I wiU which consider the three that are The relevant other to a discussion two are of this issue's and and essays, "para figu are aU discussed former about the reader in Palimpsests. term refers texts may "architextuality" modal, a work wiU thematic, (AUen imitate

textuality".The rative For models those expectations example, as

to a reader's

generic, of work

and his/her expect the reaUst that

reception a certain or of the

2000,102-03). such

comedy, tragedy, elements that lie on including an titles, "epitext"

novel,

the

the chapter that

"threshold" titles, includes critical

generic to refers lyric. "Paratextuality," text. This consists threshold of a and notes, inscriptions, the text such as inter discussions (103-07).

"peritext" epigraphs, views,

prefaces, elements reviews,

dedications, "outside" and editorial of

and

4 For an exceUent (2000).

5 Journals Yearbook that promote

publicity

announcements,

discussion
studies

of ekphrasis
of interarts

see Heffernan
include

(1991) and Yacobi

Word and Image and

relations

of Comparative

and General

Literature.

Works Cited
AUen, Bakhtin, Arbor: Barthes, Graham. Mikhail. Ardis. 1977. Heath. "The Death of Farrar, the Author." Straus, In Image, Music, Text, ed. and trans. 2000. Intertextuality. 1973. Problems NewYork: of Dostoevsky's Routledge. Poetics. Trans. R. W. Rotsel. Ann

Roland.

Stephen BaxandaU, New

NewYork: 1985. Patterns

and Giroux. On the Historical Explanation of Pictures.

Michael. Haven:Yale

of Intention: Press.

University

-.

Bloom, Harold. 1973. The Anxiety of Influence.NewYork: Oxford University 1975. A Map of Misreading. NewYork: Oxford University Press.
Clayton, and The Jay, and Eric Rothstein.

Press.

1991. "Figures in the Corpus: Theories of Influence In in Madison: and Intertextuality Literary History. Intertextuality." Influence Press. ofWisconsin University

CuUer, Jonathan.
Semiotics,

1981. "Presupposition
Deconstruction.

and Intertextuality"
Ithaca: CorneU University

In The Pursuit of Signs:

Press.

Literature,

Landwehr 15 Margarete Friedman, Susan Stanford. 1991."Weavings:

Author." Eric Genette, In Influence Madison: 1992. and Intertextuality University an Rothstein. Gerard.

Intertextuality
in Literary

and the (Re)Birth of the

ed. Jay Clayton and

ofWisconsin introduction.

History, Press. Jane

The Architext: Press.

Trans.

E.

Lewin.

Berkeley:

University -. 1997a. Claude -.

of California

in the Second Decree.Trans. Palimpsests:Literature Press. of Nebraska Lincoln: University Dabinsky. Paratexts: University Thresholds Press. of Interpretation.Trans. Jane

Channa

Newman

and

1997b.

E. Lewin.

Cambridge:

Cambridge

Golahny, Amy. 1996. The Eye of the Poet: Studies in theReciprocity of theVisual and Literary Arts from theRenaissance to the Present. Lewisburg: Bucknell University
Press.

Hagstrumjean.
Heffernan,

1958. SisterArts: The Tradition of Literary Pictorealism and English Poetry from Dryden toGray. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
James A. W. "Ekphrasis and Representation." New Literary History 22

(1991): 297-316.
Hutcheon, Heinrich -. 1989. Linda. Plett. The 1991. New Politics "The Politics of Postmodern de Gruyter. NewYork: Routledge. Parody." In Intertextuality, ed. York: Walter

of Postmodernism.

-.

1988. A
1986.

Poetics
"Word, Columbia 1986a.

of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction. New

Dialogue University and Novel." Press. The Woman, the Text, and In The Kristeva Reader,

York:
ed. Toril

Routledge. Kristeva, Moi. Miller, Julia.

NewYork: Nancy K.

"Arachnologies:

the Critic."

In

The Poetics of Gender, ed. Nancy

Press.

K. Miller. New York: Columbia

University In

-.

1986b. "Changing
Feminist University Studies?Critical Press.

the Subject: Authorship, Writing

Studies, ed. Teresa de Laurentis.

and the Reader."

Bloomington: Indiana

Mitchell, W. J.T. 1986. Iconology: Image,Text, Ideology.Chicago: University

Press. Morgan, Thais E. "Is There to an Intertext in this Text?: Journal vs. Literary of Semiotics. and 3 In The

of Chicago

Approaches Musarra-Schroeder,

Intertextuality." Ulla. 1996.

American "Influence

(1985):

Interdisciplinary 1-40. Search for aNew

Intertextuality."

Alphabet: Literary Studies in a Changing World, ed.Harald Hendrix, Joost Kloek, Sophie Levie,Will van Peer. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co. Weisstein, Ulrich. 1993. "Literature and the (Visual) Arts: Intertextuality andMutual Illumination."
Renaissance Wellek, Rene, Harcourt Wolf, Bryan.

In Intertextuality: German
Century. Columbia: Theory Warren. 1956.

Literature and Visual Art from

Camden of Literature. House. Rev. Ed. NewYork:

the

to the Twentieth and Austin and Brace. "Confessions of

a Closet

Ekphrastic:

Literature,

Painting,

and

Other

Unnatural Relations." YaleJournal of Criticism 3 (1990): 181-203. Yacobi, Tamar. "Interart Narrative: (Un)reliability and Ekphrasis." Poetics Today 21 (2000): 712-749.

16

29.3 (Summer 2002) CollegeLiterature

Lauro. Spinks 1995. and John "A Model Deely for Intertextual In Semiotics 1995, Analysis." am Main/New Peter York: Lang. eds. C.W.

Zavala,

Frankfurt