The way a text gains meaning by referencing, echoing, or engaging with other texts.
Intertextuality is the relationship between texts - the way a story's meaning is shaped by its connections to other stories, genres, myths, or cultural works. Every story exists in conversation with the stories that came before it. When a novel reworks a Greek myth, when a short story echoes a famous poem, or when a fantasy series draws on fairy tale structures, that is intertextuality at work. The term was coined by literary theorist Julia Kristeva in the 1960s, building on Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas about dialogue between texts.
You are not writing in a vacuum. Whether you know it or not, your work is in conversation with everything you have ever read, watched, or heard. Understanding intertextuality lets you tap into that conversation deliberately - weaving in references and echoes that enrich your work and reward attentive readers. It also helps you recognize when you are unconsciously borrowing and decide whether that borrowing serves your story or undercuts it.
Rhys rewrites Jane Eyre from the perspective of Rochester's first wife, using intertextuality to critique the original novel's colonial assumptions.
Eliot's poem is a mosaic of quotations and allusions - from Shakespeare to Dante to nursery rhymes - making intertextuality its primary technique.
Miller retells Greek mythology from the perspective of a minor character, using the reader's familiarity with the myths to create dramatic irony and emotional depth.
Your story should stand on its own even if the reader misses every allusion. Intertextuality should add a layer of richness, not be required for comprehension.
A reference to Shakespeare does not automatically make your writing sophisticated. Ask yourself: does this connection deepen the theme, character, or meaning? If not, it is just name-dropping.
If your plot closely mirrors an existing work by accident, own it and make the connection deliberate - or change enough that your story stands independently.
Choose a fairy tale you know well - Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. Write a one-page contemporary scene that echoes the fairy tale's structure or themes without ever mentioning the fairy tale directly. See if a reader can identify which story you are reworking.