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Clover Dolph

Nikolas Gardiakos

ENC1102

September 10, 2022

Reading Response #2

James Porter explains intertextuality in “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” as

“All texts are interdependent: We understand a text only insofar as we understand its precursors”

(34). What I've understood from Porter’s explanation is that all text builds upon itself. No text is

completely separate from texts that have come before it or as Porter says, “no text escapes

intertext” (34). They leave what he calls “traces” behind. They are references to previous texts

not only in the form of citations but in language, style, or culture for example.

Porter then goes on to explain two facets of intertextuality: “iterability and

presupposition” (35). Iterability refers “to citation in its broadest sense to include not only

explicit allusions, references, and quotations within a discourse, but also unannounced sources

and influences, cliches, phrases in the air, and traditions” (35). From my understanding,

iterability can be a classic movie cliche appearing in a script or idioms like to “eat crow,” or “hit

the hay” among other things. Porter explains “Presupposition refers to assumptions a text makes

about its referent, its readers, and its context-to portions of the text which are read, but which are

not explicitly ‘there’” (35). Presuppositions are things a reader has to assume to understand the

text. An example much like Porter’s being: if I wrote the sentence “I’m going to the store to buy

chocolate milk” the reader must assume that “I” refers to someone, the store exists and sells

chocolate milk, that milk comes chocolate flavored. The reader presupposes these things to

understand the text.

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Depending on the audience of the text, what is iterabled and presumed changes. An

example of this being different interpretations of the movie “The Matrix.” I attended a catholic

highschool where I was taught that “The Matrix” was an allegory for Christianity and that Neo,

the protagonist, was allegorically Jesus Christ. After a journey of my own self discovery I was

introduced to the idea of this movie being a transgender allegory. Discourse communities make

up these different groups of people with differing interpretations. Discourse communities are

communities of people with similar goals and ways of communicating, genres and lexis that they

use to communicate, and experts in the community (Hemstrom 186). Porter says “Authorial

intention is less significant than social context; the writer is simply a part of a discourse tradition,

of a team, and a participant in a community of discourse that creates its own collective meaning”

(35). Discourse communities create the iterability and pressumability of a text. The background

of the readers brings context to a work. The discourse communities they belong to bring context.

The concepts of intertextuality and discourse community are intertwined.

Porter’s poststructuralist view is reflected in “Intertextuality and the Discourse

Community.” The infinite amount of presuppositions found in any work are also evident here.

The reader must presume that an audience and rhetor exist. They must presume that the

declaration of independence exists. More importantly, the interability is shown in his quotation

of Vygotsky, in his reference to ethos and logos, in his examples of The declaration of

independence (Porter 35). His work has “traces” of previous texts left behind in every sentence.

Porter may not be an “autonomous individual” and his work not “original” but his writing is

successful and creative. “Successful writing helps to redefine the matrix-and in that way

becomes creative” (Porter 41).

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Porter’s ideas of intertextuality and discourse communities fall completely in line with

my experiences. Every piece of media I have consumed has been through the lenses of the

discourse communities I belong to and with “traces” of other texts within them. “The Matrix”

has references to biblical names and places. The “Percy Jackson” book series has references to

the Greek gods and goddesses. My favorite book series, “The Locked Tomb” series, references

silly tumblr jokes from ten years ago. A youtuber I like used the “unsourced” updog joke in an

old video.
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Works Cited

Porter, James E. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Rhetoric review 5.1 (1986):

34–47. Web.

Hemstrom, Cassie, and Kathy Anders. “Creating, Using, and Sharing Information in Research

Communities.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Edited by Dana Driscoll et al., vol. 4, 7

Aug. 2021, pp. 184–195.