WEEKLY LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEETS

Creative Writing 12; Quarter 2, Week 2

Intertextuality

Name: __________________________________ Section: ____________________

Learning Objective: Most Essential Learning Competency:

Understanding intertextuality as a technique of drama; and Conceptualize a
character/setting/plot for a one-act play. (HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-16);
(HUMSS_CW/MPIj-IIc-17)

Time Allotment: One week.

Key Concepts:

• INTERTEXTUALITY

You will recall that characters, setting, plot, theme, conflict, and point of
view (POV) are among the main elements of storytelling or fiction writing.
The writing of plays involves the use of most of these elements, too, because
playwriting is also storytelling, but only with the added intention of being
performed, broadcasted, or filmed. But before you play with the common
basic elements again to write your own one-act-play, you may first want to
know something about another rhetorical technique called intertextuality.
Intertextuality is a literary device that shapes the meaning of your text
(called hypertext now) by another previous text (called hypotext) by creating
an interrelationship between the hypertext and hypotexts, and generating a
related understanding of your separate works. As a discourse strategy, you
can use the intertextuality in fiction, poetry, and plays.
Depending on your intention as a writer or the significance of the reference,
intertextuality, or the making of intertextual relationship can be classified as
obligatory, optional, or accidental.
Obligatory Intertextuality happens when you, as a writer, deliberately
invoke a comparison or an association in your work (again, the hypertext)
with one another or more other texts (the hypotext). Your reader’s prior
knowledge or understanding of the reference text (or intertextual texts) is
important for the better appreciation and fuller understanding of your
hypertext. Without these pre-understanding or successful connection of
links, your readers understanding of your new text is considered inadequate
or incomplete. In the Bible, the use of Old Testament prophecies (the
hypotext) in the reading of the story of Jesus (hypertext) in the New
Testament is an example of obligatory intertextuality.
In Optional Intertextuality, the connection of texts may or not be
recognized by your reader, and this has no big significance in the
understanding of your hypertext. Usually, if you employ optional
intertextuality, you are merely trying to pay homage to the “original” writers
of the hypotext that you are referencing, or to reward those who have read
the referenced materials.
When a reader finds us some connections between your text and some other
texts that you had no intention of making as an intertextual reference, the
relationship of the text is called Accidental Intertextuality. Herman
Millville’s novel Moby Dick, or The Whale (1851) is about the obsessive quest
of Captain Ahab for revenge on the white whale Moby Dick, which in a
previous voyage destroyed Ahab’s ship and severed his leg at the knee.
If you see the biblical story of “Jonah and the Whale” in the novel, that is an
Accidental Intertextuality because there was nothing in Melville’s novel
that suggests a connection or reference to the biblical story if you see Ahab’s
severed leg as Captain Hook’s severed hand (bitten off by a crocodile) in
Peter Pan, that is also an example of accidental intertextuality.
Intertextuality is a very useful literary device and technique in playwriting
because it can add a bonus satisfaction to your audience who are sitting in
the theater, present right at the moment when things are going on, and are
being said, on stage. Unlike written stories and poems that give people time
to pause and reflect, your drama can move people in a different way because
of the actors and other production values. Your choices of sceneries, props,
or even the costumes and music very likely to create some sort of
intertextuality, even if only accidentally.

Exercises / Activities
Activity 1: Warm Up
Pick a picture from the three pictures shown above. From that chosen picture,
make a synopsis/summary of the story on that picture based on your
personal interpretation. The synopsis is at least one paragraph with five
sentences. Below is the rubrics for grading your output.

Criteria Masterful Skilled Able (6 Develo- Novice Actual

(10 pts.) (8 pts.) pts.) ping (2 Score
(4 pts) pts.)
Plot
Idea,
support and
development
Structure,
organization
Sentence
structure
(grammar)
Vocabulary
and word
usage
Total Score:
(50 points)

Activity 2: Practice Intertextuality

Recall the plot of your favorite play, novel, TV show, or movie, and write it
down as your hypotext on your answer sheet. Then, by applying obligatory
intertextuality, create an original summary of your plot (now your hypertext),
with the hypotext as your reference to create intertextual relationship. You
may add or omit characters, change the setting, etc.

Criteria Masterful Skilled Able (6 Develo- Novice Actual

(10 pts.) (8 pts.) pts.) ping (2 Score
(4 pts) pts.)
Plot
Idea,
support and
development
Structure,
organization
Sentence
structure
(grammar)
Vocabulary
and word
usage
Total Score:
(50 points)
Activity 3: Character Sketch
Develop a character straight from your imagination. Once you are done
creating that character, you need to think about its characteristics. Make sure
that this character will appear on the story of your one-act play to be done in
the following weeks. In the box provided below, write the name of your
character and describe its physical features and abilities.

Name of Character:
_________________________________________

Character description:
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________

Reflection
Write a reflective learning about what you have learned about imagery,
diction, and figures of speech by answering the questions inside the box. You
may express your answers in a more critical and creative presentation of your
great learning. Have fun and enjoy!

WHAT I LIKED THE WHAT I NEED TO WHAT I WANT TO

MOST ABOUT THE IMPROVE IN LEARN CONNECTED
LESSON UNDERSTANDING TO THE LESSON
THE LESSON
• • •
• • •
• • •

REFERENCES:
• Nery, P. (2017) Creative Writing. Diwa Learning Systems INC.
 • Buhisan A. & Sayseng A. (2017). Creative Writing. JFS Publishing
Services.

PREPARED BY ANHS-SHS CW TEACHERS:

RUBY S. BULATIN DESIREE JOY L. CUBILAS

MARILOU C. CASTRO IMARC FERNAND C. VERGA

Reviewers:

Reviewers: DOLYNESSA J. GALEON

HUMSS 12 Group Head

AMALIA B. RINGOR
Track Head

RUTH A. CASTROMAYOR
Principal IV
Assistant Principal – SHS

ISRAEL B. REVECHE, PhD.

EPS-Values
Division SHS Coordinator