---
title: "Intertextuality in American Literature"
description: "Intertextuality is the way American literature echoes, borrows from, or responds to other texts, shaping meaning through references, parody, and revision."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/american-literature-since-1860/key-terms/intertextuality"
type: "key-term"
subject: "American Literature – 1860 to Present"
unit: "Unit 12"
---

# Intertextuality in American Literature

## Definition

Intertextuality is the relationship between texts when one American work echoes, references, revises, or pushes against another. In American Literature since 1860, it shows how writers build meaning through literary conversation.

## What It Is

Intertextuality in American Literature since 1860 is the idea that a text makes meaning through its connections to other texts. A novel, poem, short story, or essay may allude to an older work, borrow a style, rewrite a familiar plot, or answer a previous author’s ideas.

That means you are not reading a work as if it were sealed off from everything else. A postmodern novel might quote a classic form to expose how artificial storytelling can be. A prose poem might use pieces of lyric language from other traditions, while still looking like prose on the page. An Asian American writer might weave family stories, historical documents, and inherited cultural narratives together to show how identity is built from more than one source.

Intertextuality can be obvious or subtle. Sometimes it shows up as a direct allusion, like a line that points to another famous text. Other times it works through parody, pastiche, or genre blending, where the new text imitates or rearranges older material so you notice the original pattern differently.

In this course, that matters because American literature after 1860 is full of writers reacting to earlier American myths and forms. Later authors often revise the language of the frontier, the American Dream, realism, modernism, or immigrant narratives instead of writing from scratch. The new text may honor the old one, criticize it, or do both at once.

A good example is postmodern fiction, where writers often borrow from advertisements, popular culture, earlier novels, or even the book you are reading in order to question originality itself. The point is not just to recognize a reference. The point is to explain what that reference does: Does it create irony? Build authority? Show cultural memory? Reveal that the new work is arguing with the old one?

## Why It Matters

Intertextuality gives you a way to read American literature as a conversation across time. That is useful in a course that moves from the Civil War era to the present, because later writers are often responding to earlier ideas about nationhood, race, gender, class, technology, and belonging.

It also helps you see why a work feels layered. A text can be doing more than telling its own story. It may be revising a myth, quoting a previous genre, or using another writer’s language to challenge a cultural assumption. Once you start tracking those links, you can explain tone, irony, and theme with more precision.

This is especially helpful for postmodern and contemporary writing, where authors often treat originality as something slippery. Intertextuality can make a novel feel playful, self-aware, political, or fragmented, depending on how it uses older texts. In prose poetry and metafiction, for example, the references are often part of the form itself, not just decoration.

For Asian American literature and globalized American writing, intertextuality also shows how identity is formed across multiple traditions. Writers may draw on oral history, immigrant memory, canonical American texts, and cultural stories from elsewhere to show a life that does not fit one simple national script.

## Connections

### Allusion

Allusion is one common way intertextuality shows up. When a writer points to a Bible story, a classic poem, or another famous work, that reference adds extra meaning without needing a full explanation inside the text. In this course, you can use allusion as evidence that a writer is building on earlier literature rather than writing in isolation.

### Parody

Parody uses imitation for humor, critique, or both, and it often depends on you recognizing the original text or genre being mocked. In American literature since 1860, parody can target romantic ideals, patriotic myths, or polished literary styles. It is intertextual because the joke or criticism only works through comparison.

### Pastiche

Pastiche is borrowing or mixing styles from earlier works, often without open mockery. A text might blend newspaper language, pulp fiction, and literary prose to create a layered effect. That makes pastiche useful in postmodern writing, where authors often assemble pieces of other discourses to question what counts as an original voice.

### Metafiction

Metafiction often depends on intertextuality because it draws attention to storytelling as a made thing. A metafictional work may refer to other books, genres, or its own status as a text, reminding you that narrative conventions are constructed. In this course, that self-awareness often pairs with parody or pastiche.

## On the AP Exam

A passage-analysis question may ask you to identify a reference, explain why a writer borrows another style, or show how a text revises an older literary tradition. Your job is to name the connection and then explain its effect on theme, tone, or meaning. For example, if a postmodern story echoes a detective novel, say how that borrowed form changes your reading of truth, authority, or plot. In an essay, you can use intertextuality to compare a contemporary work with an earlier American myth, immigrant narrative, or literary movement. In class discussion or quizzes, it may show up as the reason a text feels layered, ironic, or self-conscious rather than straightforward.

## Intertextuality vs Allusion

Allusion is a single reference to another text, while intertextuality is the broader relationship between texts. A work can use allusions as part of its intertextual web, but intertextuality also includes parody, pastiche, revision, and genre blending. If the question asks about one reference, think allusion. If it asks how texts talk to each other more generally, think intertextuality.

## Key Takeaways

- Intertextuality means that a text gains meaning through its relationship to other texts.
- In American Literature since 1860, it often shows up through allusion, parody, pastiche, revision, and genre mixing.
- You can use it to explain how a writer responds to older American myths, literary movements, or cultural stories.
- Postmodern, metafictional, and prose-poetry texts often lean on intertextuality to blur boundaries and raise questions about originality.
- When you spot a reference, ask what it changes about tone, theme, or the reader’s expectations.

## FAQs

### What is intertextuality in American Literature?

Intertextuality is the way one American text refers to, borrows from, or responds to another text. In literature since 1860, that can mean direct allusion, a rewritten myth, a parody of an older style, or a mixture of genres. The point is to show that meaning comes from literary relationships, not just from one isolated work.

### Is intertextuality the same as allusion?

Not exactly. Allusion is a specific reference to another text, but intertextuality is the bigger idea that texts are connected in lots of ways. A work can be intertextual without making one obvious allusion, especially if it borrows a genre, revises a story pattern, or imitates another writer’s voice.

### How do you identify intertextuality in a passage?

Look for recognizable references, echoes of older styles, or a text that seems to be rewriting something familiar. Ask what the borrowed material does, not just whether it is there. If a story uses a detective format to question truth, or a poem echoes a biblical voice, that is a strong intertextual move.

### Why does intertextuality matter in postmodern and contemporary writing?

Postmodern and contemporary authors often use intertextuality to challenge the idea that stories are totally original. By quoting, remixing, or revising earlier texts, they can show irony, critique cultural myths, or expose how language itself shapes reality. That is why it shows up so often in metafiction, pastiche, and genre-bending work.

## Related Study Guides

- [12.6 Post-human and cyberpunk literature](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-12/post-human-cyberpunk-literature/study-guide/KJMvkZOD6uea2rro)
- [6.5 Prose poetry](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-6/prose-poetry/study-guide/gSDTM1MOuCzJsrFc)
- [9.3 Asian American literature](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-9/asian-american-literature/study-guide/rFeViSa6M5pLHlCN)
- [1.4 Postmodernism](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-1/postmodernism/study-guide/w7Pw1lI6KP8uTzVf)
- [7.5 Metafiction](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-7/metafiction/study-guide/xjtxVMs8OxArvQq8)
- [12.4 Globalization in American literature](/american-literature-since-1860/unit-12/globalization-american-literature/study-guide/zHJsfZEOqDBc5su2)

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