Intertextuality as an interpretative method in qualitative research

Abstract

This article seeks to present and exemplify to the qualitative researcher the term intertextuality as a concept and as a method that may offer a framework for the analysis and interpretation of short narratives or life stories. Intertextuality as a central concept in the study of culture is particularly suitable for qualitative research, central to which is the subjectivity of the narrator, the story, and the listener/researcher, as well as the relative and indeterminate dimension of knowledge. However, using intertextuality as an interpretative method in various types of texts mandates the researcher’s awareness and abilities in areas that this article discusses. In light of the methodological objective of the article, we selected narratives that represent different types of intertextual linkage on different interpretative levels, on different levels of complexity, and on different levels of ideas. The intertextual reading to be demonstrated detects the combination of various types of cultural components in the narrative as a means of representing the world of the narrator; it takes into account a possible macro context in the narrator’s story, its style and structure, the narrator’s implicit personal interpretation, and the researcher-interpreter’s option to reread the narrative.

Building Communities in Tense Times: Fostering Connectedness Between Cultures and Generations through Community Arts

“…The composition of the research team may also have influenced the interpretation of these stories. As brought by Elkad-Lehman and Greensfeld (2011), "stories 'echo' the cultural, social, ideological and political context in which they were conceived and in which they are heard or read. Stories thus do not bear a single static meaning, but the potential of multiple meanings" (pp.…”

Fandom and identity construction: an analysis of Thai fans’ engagement with Twitter

“…Built on Bakhtin's dialogism, Julia Kristeva coined the term "intertexuality", indicating that "one particular type of context which may influence the reading of a discourse consists of previous discourses" (Posner, 2011, p. 22). In other words, the creation of text (linguistics and nonlinguistics) is influenced by other previous texts (Berger, 2012;Elkad-Lehman and Greensfeld, 2011;Worton and Still, 1991). Furthermore, as people read, listen, or see texts, it is interwoven with their past experiences with other texts.…”

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