How to Read Literature Like a Professor "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before"

With so many pieces of literature out in the world, stories and characters are bound to repeat. Or at least share some sort of similarities. Intertextuality is the act of borrowing of ideas from other texts, meaning that “there is no such thing as a wholly original work of literature,” according to Foster. The difficult part is being able to successfully identify which piece of literature the similarity originated from. Foster mentions that it takes practice to develop an instinct for intertextuality, but once you have read a fair amount of literature, you will begin to discover subtle signs that indicate borrowed literary ideas. Foster relates his story about mushroom hunting with his father to an experience the reader might have with hunting for intertextuality in the future. He explains that he used to have trouble identifying mushrooms, but as he went hunting for mushrooms more and more often, he found it easier and easier to identify the different types of mushrooms. This is the same when attempting to identify intertextuality in literature. Once you get enough practice with literature and become more familiar with a variety of different texts, the easier it becomes to identify literary elements and which specific sources they derived from.  I can relate to this concept on a personal level through my artwork.

When you first begin to study art and you take your first art class, you will probably be very confused and intimidated by all of the technical terms and rules. However, once you begin to see examples of the terms and pieces of art, you will little by little begin to understand the concepts more clearly. Eventually, you’ll be able to identify these terms and rules in other people’s art without any hesitation, or better yet, you will be ready to create your own art with these terms and rules. The key is familiarity and practice. Another thing about art is that like literature, everything is copied. Artists seek inspiration from other artists, and they do this by going to the museum or visiting art galleries to discover new ideas, techniques, or styles they like to incorporate into their own art. Although artist might visit these places simply to appreciate the work of other artists, once out eyes see something, that image is processed into our minds and into our subconscious memory. Therefore, when an artist sits down to begin their next piece, without even realizing it, they create something that has been influenced by art that they saw earlier that week at the museum. Like art, literature is sometimes influenced by other literature on accident. The writer may have been unintentionally inspired by a text that they’ve read in the past. However, sometimes the writer purposefully writes a work of literature with a character or plot line that is similar to ones from previous works of literature because he/she was influenced by the elements of another writer. Reusing textual elements from previous pieces of literature into more recent ones keeps writing classic and preserves the exceptional qualities of prior literary works.