31.1546, Review: Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Pragmatics: Mason (2019)

Thu May 7 01:50:32 UTC 2020

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1546. Wed May 06 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.1546, Review: Discourse Analysis; Ling & Literature; Pragmatics: Mason (2019)

Moderator: Malgorzata E. Cavar (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Student Moderator: Jeremy Coburn
Managing Editor: Becca Morris
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Everett Green, Sarah Robinson, Lauren Perkins, Nils Hjortnaes, Yiwen Zhang, Joshua Sims
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Jeremy Coburn <jecoburn at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: Wed, 06 May 2020 21:50:07
From: Carly Pettiona [cpettiona at gmail.com]
Subject: Intertextuality in Practice

Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36588737

Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-3883.html

AUTHOR: Jessica  Mason
TITLE: Intertextuality in Practice
SERIES TITLE: Linguistic Approaches to Literature 33
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2019

REVIEWER: Carly Pettiona, University of Melbourne

SUMMARY

Jessica Mason’s Intertextuality in Practice offers a new approach to studying
intertextuality in literature. Combining linguistics, literary studies,
neuroscience and sociology, Mason proposes the narrative interrelation
framework to analyse intertextuality in discourse. This dynamic and novel
approach encourages analysts to shift the focus of intertextuality research in
literary studies away from the author and their intentions, and toward the
reader. Throughout the book, Mason demonstrates the applicability of the
framework by analysing a range of texts, including books, book reviews,
movies, television shows and a range of other genres. The framework allows
analysts to look at intertextuality in a way that is applicable across texts
and encourages an understanding of the identity work that is involved in
intertextuality. 

Mason begins by arguing for a need to develop tools and metalanguage in order
to identify texts as intertextual. She introduces two terms to characterise
her approach to intertextuality, “narrative interrelation” – the cognitive
process a reader goes through when identifying an intertextual reference – and
“intertextual reference” – the evidence of narrative interrelation (p. 21).
The former is more difficult to analyse, as it requires self-reporting and, as
Mason goes on to outline, many people will not report their narrative
interrelations. The latter is the primary focus of this book, looking not
exclusively at the interrelations people make, but the way they are
articulated.

Mason uses this basis to establish the “narrative interrelation framework”,
the analytical approach being proposed in this book. For this review, a few of
the terms associated with this framework are significant. Mason defines
narrative by aligning herself with the Labovian (1972) view that a narrative
is not classified based on a value judgement, but on the teller’s view that
the story is tellable. Base is the word Mason gives the primary narrative
being discussed, and narrative schema, which stems from schema theory
particularly as used in cognitive linguistics, is used to describe an
individual’s conception of a text in their mind. This terminology is used to
build an understanding of how the framework operates, the way a reader
conceptualises a Base and consequently, makes intertextual references from it.

Mason proposes a cline in the realisation of intertextual references. Using a
quadrant matrix, she establishes the range of references as relating to a
specific text (specific) or multiple texts (generic) as well as being clearly
and directly stated (marked) or being expressed in a way that relies on the
reader being familiar with the referenced text (unmarked). These are not
binaries, but existing on a scale, for example an unmarked reference could be
to something widely known, or niche to a text or community. She also
introduces the concept of ‘mind-models’. These are used to highlight the way
intertextual references can impact the reader – in their understanding of the
text, the author, and the author’s intended reader – as well as the way the
author constructs themselves and their intended audience. 

The perceived superiority of intertextual references is an example of the way
that intertextual references can be used to demonstrate a hierarchy between
texts or highlight similarities. Mason argues that these references are always
intrinsically linked with identity work. For example, the author of the text,
or the review, may be marking themselves as superior to a text by utilising a
reference that is widely understood to be superior, i.e. comparing it to
Shakespeare. It is not the comparison which Mason argues does this identity
work, but the way the author positions themselves (or their characters) in
relation to the intertextual reference. 

Mason convincingly argues for the use of the narrative interrelation framework
and demonstrates how intertextual analysis offers a dynamic and wide-reaching
insight into the minds of readers, writers and into the construction of the
text.

EVALUATION

As Mason mentions in the summarising chapter, one of the strongest features of
this book is the range of texts Mason has used in her analysis. From Chapter
Two, when Mason uses six word stories (as the name implies, these are stories
that are only six words long) as examples to begin to outline some
foundational knowledge around intertextual theory, it was clear that she was
invested in applying this theory in a manner befitting her approach to
education and literary theory. This continued, with chapters including
analysis of the intertextuality evident in book reviews, as well as books that
are generally snubbed in literary circles, such as Fifty Shades of Grey and
Twilight. Mason also uses television shows, such as How I Met Your Mother,
popular movie franchises, like Star Wars, and pop culture phenomena that have
traversed multiple genres, such as Harry Potter, and the Marvel Universe. 

The choice of texts that are analysed is successful not only for supporting
the author’s stance, but also for demonstrating the application of the
framework. When analysing online reviews of Fifty Shades of Grey, Mason is
able to demonstrate the way individual narrative schemas differ so greatly.
The array of references that people rely on when discussing the book is
unpredictable and wide-ranging. The way Mason uses these texts to exemplify
her approach also helps with gaining clarity in chapters that are heavy with
definitions and theoretical grounding. In particular, Mason’s use of six-word
stories as support for defining and outlining the theoretical approach aids
the reader to understand the concepts in a manner that is easily
comprehensible.

This book comes together in Chapter Six. It is in this chapter that the reader
comes to appreciate the way Mason has exemplified the use of her framework.
She demonstrates how education is currently working to reinforce ideals around
literature and literacy that are from a time when literacy in the West was a
sign of wealth and prestige. This discussion takes the reader back to Chapter
Five, when Mason described a classroom in which children were taught exactly
what Orwell was writing about in 1984, giving them no room for interpretation
beyond that of the curriculum. Mason continues, highlighting how these beliefs
around literature extend into creating an ideal reader, someone who snubs all
but the most prestigious of media. At this point, the previous examples Mason
has used become clear. Mason has herself ensured that her book does not
continue to buy into and perpetuate norms of elitist literature and instead
values a range of texts and media.

The thread of analysis and narrative that is woven throughout this book makes
it a particularly successful text. Chapter Eight is the only chapter which did
not fit in with this thread so clearly. 
The opening section of this chapter looked at the way people ‘chain’
narratives together using interesting real-world examples of how this is done,
and applying it to social media through a brief discussion of the way hashtags
operate as a chaining device. Mason goes on to summarise and briefly analyse
three Stephen King novels in order to demonstrate how applicable the narrative
interrelation framework is for analyses beyond the traditional intertextuality
perspective. The intratextuality of King’s novels, as well as the intertextual
references between his novels, demonstrates how reader’s mind-model the author
in their understanding of a text. While this chapter was an interesting
different perspective on intertextuality, it was slightly out of place as the
final analysis chapter of this book. The first section began to demonstrate
how the narrative interrelation framework can offer a different perspective on
narratives that have been built by communities and on social media – which was
building on the themes evident throughout the book of the value in a range of
stories. However, this analysis was not fully carried out and much of the
second half of this chapter was spent explaining the premise of King’s novels.

Mason’s book introduces and expertly demonstrates the use of her narrative
interrelation framework for intertextual analysis. As recommended by Mason,
the narrative interrelation framework could easily be utilised by researchers
who are focussing on intertextuality or who may adapt it for their own
research goals. While this book may be more suited for post-graduate students
and academics, it was easy to follow, with clearly marked out definitions and
entertaining and engaging examples that would make it accessible for working
with undergraduate students as well. The multidisciplinary approach and the
well-constructed and supported ideological stance of this book make it a
timely addition to intertextual analysis theory. 

REFERENCES

Labov, William. 1972. Language in the inner city: Studies in the Black English
vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Carly Pettiona is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. Her research
areas include discourse analysis, genre analysis, feminist linguistics, and
healthcare communication. She is currently researching maternal health
communication, focusing on the construction of birth plans.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

***************************    LINGUIST List Support    ***************************
 The 2019 Fund Drive is under way! Please visit https://funddrive.linguistlist.org
  to find out how to donate and check how your university, country or discipline
     ranks in the fund drive challenges. Or go directly to the donation site:
               https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list-2019

                        Let's make this a short fund drive!
                Please feel free to share the link to our campaign:
                    https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1546	
----------------------------------------------------------