Literature as Dialogue

Each century has its own dream ¿ text: The Tempest for the seventeenth century; Robinson Cruse for the eighteenth century; Jane Eyre for the nineteenth century; Heart of Darkness for the turn of the twentieth century. Such texts serve as pre-texts to other texts. So there will be a relation between hypertext and hypotext called by the contemporary literary theorists as ¿Intertextuality¿. ¿Intertextuality¿ has different meanings. To a person uninitiated to literature the word "intertextuality" could very well mean ¿a copy¿ or ¿an imitation¿ of a text, or even a relational resemblance between two texts. To a beginner in the field of literary theory "intertextuality" may mean recognizable "signs" from one text that are reproduced by another, in the process undergoing a transformation. To someone advanced in the study of literary theory "intertextuality" begins to assume a deeper thrust and a dawning realization where no text is original.