Intertextuality

"English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England."

--Homer Simpson

The foundations of writing start with a writer deciding to write. The writer is moved to write by a certain purpose for a certain audience. They pick a specific structure (narrative, edifier, myth, drama, or poetry) and write according to its structural conventions. The writer also writes according to the conventions of a genre and occasionally a literary movement. As the writer writes, they choose a perspective to act as the voice of the writing and adopt a writing style to make that voice stand out from (or blend in with) the works of other writers. A writer is ultimately successful if their final written work appeals to their intended audience--something they can achieve by using the tools of rhetoric.

Chances are you've heard of The Simpsons. Since 1989, this cartoon by Matt Groening has irreverently mocked popular culture and critiqued American values. But how did this show become not just iconic but the longest-running scripted series in television history? While there is much to analyze concerning the characters and writing of The Simpsons, most scholars believe a large part of their staying power comes from the fact that The Simpsons constantly refers to other stories, artworks, films, events, and music in popular culture.

This bridge the show makes between itself and other media is called intertextuality, a term for how a text connects to another text. Note that intertextuality is about inspiration, not categorization. The Simpsons goes beyond the casual reference to other comedies--they connect to tragedies, romances, westerns, war films, and even (treehouses of) horror. Though we group texts by their genre, their structure, literary movement, and verity, this usually happens after the text is published, while intertextuality is intentionally done by the author while writing.

There are also certain basics in all writing that are grounded in connecting texts but are not necessarily artistic. For example, the direct quotation: if one directly quotes from a source text, then that text obviously has a connection to the work. The same goes for themes and archetypes—these are universal concepts and cannot be avoided when writing a work. While some authors work to develop creative versions of themes and archetypes, these still exist without the author's input.

Intertextuality is different, as it is both creative and intentional on the part of the author. Intertextuality also connects to one specific text, not a general genre, movement, or thematic idea. This is about the author making connections, not us connecting after the fact.

THE ONE-OFF: ALLUSIONS AND HOMAGES

An allusion is a single reference to a well-known text or character. It's a standalone reference, sometimes called an "Easter Egg," that does not influence the plot at all but helps develop a character, a place, or a situation. Here is a screenshot with dialogue from an episode of The Simpsons called "A Milhouse Divided" where Homer makes a clear reference to Scooby Doo,. This is a one-off joke, and Scooby Doo is never referenced again.

Think of allusions as a shortcut for writers. By using a well-known reference that readers will know, the allusion can help make the writer's point easier and quicker to understand by building on the existing knowledge and (ideally) positive feeling about the referenced work. Allusions are common in dialogue, descriptions, and even titles (for example, the title of the episode in the paragraph above is an allusion to the phrase "a house divided cannot stand").

Another allusion occurs in "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show" when Bart looks for a way to prank Homer on April Fool's Day and hears Homer say, “Ah, beer, my one weakness. My Achilles' heel, if you will.” This is an allusion to the Greek myth of Achilles, whose mother dipped him into the Styx as a baby, granting him invulnerability everywhere except his heel, where his mother held onto him so he wouldn't float away.

The internet birthed its own kind of visual allusion: the meme. A meme is an image or video with a changeable caption used to draw parallels between one context and another. The Simpsons themselves have launched dozens of popular memes. Whether it's Homer disappearing into the bushes (used to imply an attempted graceful escape from an awkward encounter) or Lisa lecturing on a stage (used to outline a bold and uncomfortable truth), the popularity of The Simpsons made them ripe for allusion in the same way that The Bible, Shakespeare, and Greek myths were a century ago.

When a bunch of similar allusions come together and carry through an entire scene or story, this is called an homage. An homage shows respect to another artist through continual use of allusion, yet the story is still original and not an adaptation of the original plot or text. Here is an homage The Simpsons created to the opening scene of Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark.

THE REWRITE: TRANSLATIONS, ABRIDGMENTS, AND EXPANSIONS

A translation is the rewriting of a text as accurately as possible into a different language. While this seems like a straightforward process, there is actually a lot of artistry that goes into translation, as some words have no equal in another language. Cuban-American author Achy Obejas perhaps put this best in her novel Days of Awe when discussing the protagonist's translator father:

"He would tell me about his frustrations with heaven, how he searched in vain for a Spanish equivalent. 'The dictionary says cielo, but that's sky,' he explained. 'I looked up paradise--paraiso--I looked up nirvana, Valhalla, Eden. But still the closest thing was cielo, as if, in Spanish, the enigma of the sky could never be penetrated, as if the stars were just the stars, the moon just a moon.' Over the years, he would compile a catalog of words that refused to convert from one language to the other. Heaven was at the top of his list in stubborn English; in Spanish, it was escampar, which is what happens when it stops raining" (11).

Another problem with accuracy is whether to be accurate to the words or style of the original work. For example, several poets over the centuries have struggled to translate Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy into English not because words have no English equivalents, but because the structure of the original is lost. The original epic is a terza rima, written in rhyming interlocking triplets. Some translators, like Robert Pinsky, focus on keeping the poetic structure and not the exact wording, while other try to keep the wording and eliminate the style.

An abridgment is where a version of the original text is shortened, either for printing purposes or purposes of education. The most popular abridged works in the United States come from Reader's Digest and often have entire characters and scenes cut out to shrink a story to just its main action. In a world of tl;dr, abridgments are one of the fastest-growing literary industries.

The opposite of abridgements are expansions, which is a continuation of a story. One type of expansion is the sequel, which picks up on threads from the original story and continues the lives of the characters. There's also the prequel, which explores the events that happened before the original. Sequels and prequels are common in genre fiction and film. Film also has the remake or reimagining, which is the same story as the original with small changes and different performers (writing doesn't really have an equivalent to remakes).

While technically separate original works, many expansions are read or even published alongside the original to make the new material feel included. Other expansions come in the form of fan fiction—these works are usually not copyrightable or considered "canon" unless the original author or copyright holder approves them.

STEALING SOMEONE'S STYLE: PASTICHE

A pastiche is a text that imitates the style of another text or artist. All the elements of style, from tone to diction, mirror a previous work. This is different from other adaptations, as it is not about reusing plot elements but reusing style—it's as if the same author sat down to write a different story. The text stands independently on its own but can be understood more deeply when the reader knows what style is being imitated.

Here is a pastiche of The Simpsons couch gag done in the style of Academy Award-nominated animator Sylvain Chomet. Notice the characters and relationships are the same while the style is completely different. This animation was actually done by Chomet himself but is still a pastiche, as he is imitating his own style for another author.

MAKING IT YOUR OWN: ADAPTATION

An adaptation is a text that is an artistically altered version of a previously published text. There are three types of adaptations: media adaptations, transformative adaptations, and parody.

A media adaptation is where the text of one medium (writing, song, art, etc) is turned into another medium directly. This is pretty straightforward: a novel becomes a movie, a movie becomes a stage musical, a musical becomes a comic, etc. In fact, every staging of a dramatic work is technically a media adaptation of the original script. There may be some characterization or lines that are different but the whole work is pretty much unchanged.

Here is a media adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven."

A transformative adaptation takes the original story but makes sweeping changes: the text is rewritten with slightly different characters, setting, and style but stays true to the themes, story, and purpose of the original work. For example, Pride and Prejudice has film adaptations that stick exactly to the source material, and it has film adaptations such as the Lizzie Bennett Diaries (which set the story in a modern tech firm) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (which, obviously, add zombies to the story). Most modern adaptations are transformative, for even turning a play into a musical alters the pacing of the story and which characters are important.

Here is a Simpsonian version of 1968's The Planet of the Apes adapted into a campy musical.

MAKING A MOCKERY: PARODY

A parody is an adaptation that makes fun of or comments on another text, artist, style, or real world person or event. A parody is always intended to mock a text, and a reader must know the original to understand the parody, as the parody duplicates events or characters from the original, but to an absurd degree. Sometimes a parody is also an homage, when the author honors something they love by ridiculing it.

Parodies, as a form of adaptation, stick to the original characters or events but twist them to an absurd degree. The Simpsons are well known for their parodies, usually featured in their "Treehouse of Horror" series. Parodies done include King Kong, Strangers on a Train, The Odyssey, and, as in this example, The Shining.

Note that parodies are not satires: a satire uses humor to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. Satire has an underlying message, while a parody is only done for fun.

The Simpsons as a whole is a satire of the American "nuclear family" idealized in the 1950s and 1960s. Homer and Marge Simpsons have 2.5 children, live in the suburbs, go to church on Sundays, and participate in the middle class lifestyle in a variety of ways. However, the show's use of humor and exaggeration reveals the dysfunction at the heart of this American Dream.

For instance, in "Homer's Enemy," Homer tries to impress and befriend a coworker who dislikes him. However, the coworker bluntly tells Homer that his success is undeserved--it comes from luck and happenstance rather than hard work. This critique of Homer is really a satirical critique of the baby boomer generation's unearned attitude of superiority over struggling Gen-Xers.

The Simpsons Episodes Referenced
"Bart's Friend Falls in Love" The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 3, episode 23. 20th Century Fox, 1992.
"Diggs." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 25, episode 12. 20th Century Fox, 2014.
"A Fish Called Selma." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 7, episode 19. 20th Century Fox, 1996.
"Homer's Enemy." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 8, episode 23. 20th Century Fox, 1997.
"In Marge We Trust." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 8, episode 22. 20th Century Fox, 1997.
"So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 4, episode 18. 20th Century Fox, 1993.
"The Springfield Connection." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 6, episode 23. 20th Century Fox, 1995.
"Treehouse of Horror." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 2, episode 3. 20th Century Fox, 1990.
"Treehouse of Horror V." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 6, episode 5. 20th Century Fox, 1994.
"The Way We Was." The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening, season 2, episode 12. 20th Century Fox, 1991.