In James Porters' “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” he challenges the common belief that all of our writing is completely individual. He says the idea of intertextuality is the idea that all texts contain traces from other texts or ideas. On top of borrowing ideas that we have already read, we let our social communities shape the way we think and perceive things, therefore affecting our writing.
Porter identifies discourse communities, which is a group of individuals bound by a common interest. With this idea in mind, he further explains that intertextuality constrains writing. It shifts the importance of a piece of writing away from the author’s intention, and more to the social context. He presents two serious problems with typical writings: “limited range” and “unclear text.”
By imagining text to be “individual” we are only hurting ourselves. We have to realize the social context in which people will understand our writing. Porter says “all texts are interdependent: We understand a text only insofar as we understand its precursors.” He suggests ways to overcome this idea by choosing a topic that should be acceptable to your discourse community. He suggests choosing the “right” topic, by applying the appropriate critical methodology and adopting the views of the communities’ values. By doing so, this is the best way to get your point across in the way in which you want it to be read.
Simply assuming that what you mean will be conveyed to your readers is a problem when you consider text to be “individual.” All text contains other ideas, and people will pull from their experiences and values to perceive what you are trying to say. By accepting the idea that most, if not all, writings are just a “web of ideas,” we can better prepare our stories to be more successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment