In film class the other day, I found myself fighting off sleep as we studied directors and stylistic techniques. I didn’t jolt back to consciousness until I heard the word “intertextuality”, which of course got me thinking about Reader and Text.
As my professor went on to ask for a class definition of the word “intertextuality” I found my hand flying up in the air. I felt I knew the term the best out of everyone (even though I have no idea of their academic backgrounds). As I went to answer, I told her that intertextuality is the conversation between two texts that work with and for each other respectively.
In film class, I link film with literature naturally. For instance when talking about Citizen Kane by Orson Welles, I mentioned Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. When speaking of Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock, I mentioned The Bacchae by Euripedies.
As true in Interdisciplinarity, I see myself making these natural links between courses, especially within a given semester, let alone my entire academic career. It makes me wonder how intertextuality and interdisciplinarity work together as an idea and a novel.