Mackenzie Casey Casey 1

Professor Gardiakos

ENC 1102

28 January 2020

Intertextuality and Discourse Community Reading Response

James Porter, makes the point that intertextuality is the theory that almost nothing is

original. Every article, book, and short-story, has compiled things from other works that have

been passed down through reading and researching. He gives examples to how you can easily see

this. “ "Once upon a time" is a trace rich in rhetorical presupposition, signaling to even the

youngest reader the opening of a fictional narrative. Texts not only refer to but in fact contain

other texts.”(36) Something as simple as “Once upon a time,” has been passed down through

several generations, and clue the reader in that it is a fictional story. This just shows that no story

is completely original due to the fact that elements are consistently re-used and repeated by all

authors.

Porter, basically exposes himself, he claims that all authors borrow and therefore, all

works and articles are not original. However, this doesn’t hurt Porter in getting his point across

because he never sheds this idea of intertextuality in bad light. He basically states that this has

been happening for generations of writing, and sometimes we don’t even realize that we are

doing it while writing. So it doesn’t make Porter a bad writer because his work isn’t original,

because he is explaining to us just how intertextuality has been used in every single work. So

relatively, his article is just one large example of what he is trying to get across.
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We can see this idea of interexuality in all sorts of work. I am a very big fan of country

music, you can see little things like phrases reused throughout all different songs by different

artists. However, I have recognized one very obvious example in the song, “I was Jack (You

were Diane)” by, Jake Owen. This song specifically samples the song “Jack and Diane” by, John

Mellencamp, not only does it sample the music used in the original song but it also is a song

referring to the original and how things used to be. You can even notice how similar the titles

are, there are just slight changes. This makes Jake Owen’s song not 100% original, but however

still original in the sense that he thought to write about this song and how things used to be.

Not only have I seen this idea come to light in the music I listen to but the TV shows I

watch. The show “Full House” aired during the 90’s but in the last two years, Netflix has

refurbished the older show with a new cast, keeping some of the originals. The new show “Fuller

House,” shows some of the original cast grown up with kids and how they’re surviving their

day-to-day lives. They keep certain catch phrases, and episode ideas similar. This show is not

original because it is a spin-off of existing 90’s serious. However, it has its changes and upgrades

to make it new and up to the times.

Both of these examples represent and artistic discourse community. They represent two

different types, a music related community as well as a TV show related community, however at

the end of the day, they both involve the same sort of idea. The idea that authors/artists share and

mix around ideas and repeat things in every single work. If you listen to some of your favorite

songs or even just the radio, you can clearly see some things that relate or even things that are
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copied or borrowed. Intertextuality seems to be just a natural part of any writing process. We

may have noticed it before, but never knew what it was called or how to describe it, but Porter

made that easier for us after publishing his article on intertextuality and giving us common

everyday examples to truly understand what he means.

I believe that intertextuality is something that just comes with the writing process. It isn’t

something that we should try to avoid, by reading you are automatically picking up new

techniques, words, and phrases from other authors. Reading and researching is how you grow as

a writer, by reading you are building your vocabulary and writing style. Porter wasn’t afraid to

admit that no writing is original, so obviously he isn’t ashamed that his isn’t either.
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Works Cited

Porter, James E. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." ​Rhetoric Review​ 5.1

(1986): 34-47. Print.