Home › Glossary › Letter I

Intertextuality

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The interweaving of references, echoes, or quotations from other texts to enrich a poem’s meaning through literary conversation or contrast.

Detailed Definition
Intertextuality denotes the shaping of a text’s meaning by its relationship to other texts through allusion, parody, pastiche, or echo; in poetry, it creates rich semantic layers, as when T.S. Eliot weaves myth and literature into "The Waste Land," making reading an act of cultural archaeology.
Example
Example in poetry:
Intertextuality: Eliot’s “The Waste Land” quoting Dante; “My poem answers Plath’s ‘Daddy’” (dialogic); “Rewriting Psalm 23 as urban lament” (biblical echo); “Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 in climate crisis” (adaptive)
Additional Notes
The relationship between texts through quotation, allusion, reference, or influence. All texts exist in relation to others. Essential concept for understanding literary tradition. Key to reading modernist and postmodern poetry.
Other Meanings of “Intertextuality”
Also Known As
Textual reference Literary allusion Cross-text relation Echo technique Architextuality Literary borrowing Intertext Citation
Skip to main content