Intertextuality as a Whole

In his book How to Read Literature Like a Professional, Thomas Foster states that “there’s no such thing as a wholly original work of literature.” This, called intertextuality, is described  as the crossing of old and new stories to create a new piece of writing. Authors pull ideas from multiple works and manipulate them into a story of their own. The idea that no piece of literature is completely original has been explored for years among English classes. Look at a piece of work such as West Side Story compared to the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet. There are major differences displayed such as the setting of each story and the way the events of the climax took place, but the overall relationship between the plot of both are very similar, one just had a modern twist. Two people fell in love but were forbidden to be together because of family or gang relations, leading to a tragic end for both sets of main characters. The element of intertextuality creates layers that bring themes and symbols together to add a deeper meaning to the text. Meaning speaks to the reader explaining that the rivalry between New York gangs is not only destroying family and friends, but the possibilities of love, life, and order in life. Foster ends  by saying just because an author draws ideas from other great literary works does not automatically mean it is “good” by association and also overlooking the reference does not mean the reader is not intelligent or not a skilled reader. The goal of intertextuality is to enrich the piece of literature and further draw the eye of the reader.