Intertextuality Between Classes

I got a little too excited doing homework a few days ago.

In my creative non-fiction workshop, we are currently spending time reading and critiquing each others’ pieces, similar to the process we used in our Reader & Text workshop groups recently. When writing my comments for one particular piece, I was able to make a connection between the central conflict in the piece and a theme shown in Jean Toomer’s Cane (this is where I got excited). I could then made a suggestion to the writer to consider including a reference to this aspect of Cane in order to strengthen the piece in revision.

It’s always interesting to me to see how topics being covered in one class can relate to, or help you, while studying in other classes and topics. When I am able to connect two classes of the same discipline or material being covered in two very different classes, it excites me because it shows me that I am not just taking these classes as part of a path towards graduation, simply for the purpose of getting a degree–it reminds me that everything I am doing is a part of something bigger, that it all has real-world meaning, that I am not isolated in my studies.

Although this example was a connection between two English classes, it is still an example of intertextuality, and is also a bridge towards noticing larger patterns of interdisciplinarity. If one is able to identify ties between two similar subjects, it opens up and trains the mind to notice similarities and comparisons. Intertextuality and interdiciplinarity are similar in that both concepts target recognition of threads that run between two separate thoughts–whether it be two separate texts or two separate disciplines. Therefore, it becomes easier in the future for a person to notice points of interdisciplinary if they have been also trained in noticing intertextuality.

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