Intertextuality in A rose for Emily

Intertextuality is the reference to or application of a literary, media, or social text within another literary, media, or social text. In literature, intertextuality is when a book refers to a second book by title, scene, character, or storyline, or when a book refers to a social text such as a media, social, or cultural story. 1 Nowadays,we cannot speak about ori inality in literature, because e!ery word and almost e!ery phrase we ha!e seen it in a book."he writers need to put the words to ether in a different way,so their work could be seen like somethin new.It is ob!ious that is a similarity between different texts. A #ose for Emily is related to many other $ulkner stories.Also is related to others works of the reat modernists,like %oyce and Eliot. &Emily& needs to be read as part of the American othic tradition, alon side works by 'rockden 'rown, (oe, )awthorne, and *+,onnor. 'ut it also belon s with the literature of madness and psycholo ical stuntin so prominent in the work of ,harlotte (erkins -ilman .&"he /ellow 0all1(aper&2, many of the poems of 3ickinson, $aulkner+s own no!el, As I 4ay 3yin , and the poetry of 5yl!ia (lath.6 %efferson ,ity,located in the fictional /oknapatawpha ,ounty in 7ississippi is the town where the action of many others stories of $aulkner is set8As I 4ay 3yin , 5anctuary,"he 7ansion, 3ry 5eptember,or "he 5ound and the $ury. 0e can see how 0illiam $aulkner9s A #ose for Emily is related to (oe9s "he 7as:ue of the #ed 3eath .'oth stories are two examples of othic literature.In both stories death is present.In (oe9s story there is a bubonic pla ue who killed many people.(rince (rospero,in order to defend himself from the disease,locked the ates of his

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http://humanities.wisc.edu/assets/misc/What_Is_Intertextuality.pdf http://college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/3e/instructors/syllabuild/iguide/faulkner.html

castle,so no one could enter and brin the disease.In A #ose for Emily, there are many references to death8the death of Emily9s father,the murder of )omer,or the funeral scene. A simlar theme appears in ;atherine Ann (orter9s "he %iltin of -ranny 0eatherall..Ellen 0eatherall,nicknamed -ranny ,lies on her deathbed when the story be ins."he narrator tells -ranny9s life throu h a techni:ue that 0,$aulkner also uses it, stream of consciousness. -ranny was <ilted on her weddin day by her fianc= -eor e. Althou h she continued on with her life>remarried, had four children, and li!ed to be an old woman> the loss of -eor e continued to affect her. "hen, as she took her last breath, the bride room .%esus2 betrayed her as well. 0hile the two stories contain similar themes, both are affected by different circumstances>Emily by her o!erbearin and o!erprotecti!e father, -ranny by her first <iltin . "he author9s use of settin , plot, narration, flashback, conflict, symbolism, and character analyses contribute to the o!erall theme of each story.? A #ose for Emily is also related to ;ate9s ,hopin "he 5tory of an )our.'oth of these stories end in death.7rs 7allard , from "he 5tory of an )our dies because her husband returned when she thou ht he was dead.Emily dies from broken heart because e!ery man from her life lea!es her or dies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jilting_of_Granny_Weatherall 2