Intertextuality is a concept formulated by the Bulgarian-French philosopher Julia Kristeva, who defended that “any text is the absorption and transformation of another”[1]; the word “text” should be understood here in a broader way, as it can be a reference to any artistic or cultural production, in a visual support or not, and including verbal and non-verbal texts. The word itself “intertextuality” indicates its own meaning, being the suffix “inter” a reference to something that is together, mutual, that has a relation, followed by the noun “textuality”, i.e., the features that allow a text to be considered as so; just by comprehending the two terms that create the concept, it is clearly understandable that the intertextuality is a relation between texts.
According to this definition, any object of the modern culture (movies, books, songs, paintings, sculptures, etc.) are related, and each establishes several relations of interdependence and interconnection with other objects, which creates a constant and continuous dialogue between texts. This intertextual relations appear under different forms that is, a text can make a direct or an indirect reference to other text.
Direct/explicit intertextuality: a clear and unmistakable reference to a text in another text; some examples are quotations, or the creation of an image from a previous one (a parody to a famous painting, using obvious elements of the first).
Indirect/implicit intertextuality: an allusion to a text in another text; one example of this type of intertextuality may be the reproduction of an idea or concept from other text, but by different words/images.
References:
[1] KRISTEVA, Julia, The Kristeva Reader, Columbia University Press, 1986
