Intertextuality is the often practiced art of referencing things in other things.
The first example I will use is this image from the Simpsons. This image is a reference to the Nirvana album cover, Nevermind. The original cover featured a baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishing line hook.
The second example I will use is also from the Simpsons. This image is a reference to famous surrealist artist, Salvador Dali. The piece of art it is referencing is The Persistence of Memory. In the original work, the artist portrayed clocks throughout the painting melting downwards.
This is actually really interesting to me because you notice these little nods at art, drama, and other pop culture sources, in shows like The Simpsons but I never had a word to describe it before. Considering how common intertextuality is, it's definitely had a large role in shaping the popularity of shows nearly basing it's entirety off of it. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I am glad to have a word to define these little references all over the place that I've seen. It also really makes me realize how big of a deal The Simpsons was in its heyday.
DeleteExamples are spot on! Love the Nirvana reference. I'm a big fan of the way south park uses it as well, never watched much of the Simpsons so I've never seen the one with the Dali reference but I doubt it would've caught my attention.
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