Katabatic Intertextual Relations

In the Introduction to this study, it was argued that children’s literature as a body of texts cannot be studied successfully in isolation. Indeed, following the various theories of intertextuality which have developed over the past forty years, it is impossible to fully comprehend any individual text, whether for children or adults, without reference and recourse to others. In contradistinction to New Criticism, theories of intertextuality arise from the conviction that a text ‘cannot exist as a hermetic or self-sufficient whole, and so does not function as a closed system’. ¹ Like man, no text is an island: ‘Il n’y a pas d’œuvre individuelle. L’œuvre d’un individu est une sorte de nœude [sic] qui se produit à l’intérieur d’un tissu culturel’ [There are no individual works. The work of an individual is a sort of knot produced within a cultural fabric]. ² Any one text ‘se construit comme mosaïque de citations’ [is constructed as a mosaic of quotations], and is thus held within an almost inconceivably vast textual network. ³ Relationships which may or may not be identified by the reader, can be deliberately set down by the author. But although many critics reject the legitimacy or at least the pertinence of such a view, relationships not intended by the author can also be established on the part of the reader. ⁴ The number of links between texts is thus infinite, and the limitlessness of intertextual relations may well seem ‘bewildering’, overwhelming and unworkable in practice. ⁵