Introduction

Detecting the presence of a cryptic subtext can become a significant part of the process of interpreting a text. It involves finding something hidden in the text on the basis of clues scattered by the author—some possible allusion, some seeming incongruity. The value of studying the play of subtext and hypertext is hardly in doubt; it is one of the traditional procedures of comparative literature. What is true of literary texts is equally true of films, which are constantly recycling aspects of earlier successful films as a means of increasing their own chances of success. The metaphors of secret message and buried treasure may prove even more suggestive—the cryptic subtext itself may offer—and usually does offer—a means not only of reinterpreting a text but sometimes of proposing an entirely new and different reading of it. Concealing a cryptic subtext in the text may have allowed the author to make a provocative statement in a way that guarantees maximum deniability.