Types of inter-textuality along with several examples

1. A brief overview about the definition
and some of the types of inter-
textuality along with certain
examples.

2. Intertextuality is a literary device that
creates an ‘interrelationship between texts’
and generates related understanding in
separate works.
Intertextuality works on the concept that
audiences know what other existing text is
being represented and this gives them
pleasure as they can relate to that.

3. The music videos I will be using as
examples of Intertextuality are mainly:
1. Magic by Coldplay.
2. Uptown funk by Bruno Mars.
Apart from these I will be slightly reflecting
upon a few other music videos such as
Eminem’s Without me and Dhol bajay ga by
Pakistani band Overload.

4. Pastiche is when a text uses an already
produced idea and celebrates it and uses
its features to create intertextuality.
The music video of magic by Coldplay
uses this feature, using a completely
similar theme as that of Charlie Chaplin’s
movies from the early 1900’s.

5. Magic by Coldplay Charlie Chaplin's the fireman
The intro is almost the same, Even the background music is the same jazzy,
trumpets playing. The intro has a retro and old black and white look to it an the same
camera effect of moving pictures as that of the hand moving cameras had in the
1900’s.

6. Charlie Chaplin's movieMagic by Coldplay
Following the same theme, the music video also uses quotes as dialogues of the
characters featured, just like Charlie Chaplin's movies which used this technique
because there was no dialogues and sound for dialogues. And the representation of
the attire such as the hats and suit and moustache are all the same. This shows how
the music video celebrates an already existing text through intertextuality.

7. Parody is when an existing media text is
mocked or made fun of by changing the
main idea of the text and representing it in
a new and humorous way.

8. Robin Eminem dressed as robin.
Eminem dresses up as robin with the same suit but with the emblem
spelling an E for Eminem not an R for Robin. The parody here is that
Robin stops bad people and is a hero and savior where as Eminem stops
a child from getting a cd with bad language.

9. Eminem also mocks Usama bin Laden as he is shown dancing and running
which is a parody of his seriousness and attitude.
The US based news channel CNN is also being parodied as the same logo is
used only with the E replacing the C.

10. Homage is when an artist or music video
pays tribute to an already existing artist or
superstar i.e. through copying their style or
paying a tribute, for example Madonna has
done this quite often paying tribute to
Marilyn monroe.

11. Grease movie Uptown funk – Bruno mars
Bruno mars uptown funk follows the style of the 1980’s especially with the
dressing. The dressing can be matched with that of john Travolta in grease, and
especially the dance moves as most of the dance moves are the same as that in
grease.

12. Slash – Guitarist of Guns n roses Guitarist from overload’s Dhol bajay ga
The guitarist In the music video of Dhol bajay ga by Pakistani band Overload
wears the same haircut as that of Slash, and plays the same guitar as well
which is a Gibson Les Paul. His actions and head banging and hiding his face
in his hair are all those of the great guitarist slash and it can be seen that he
idealizes Slash and therefore pays him homage by dressing up like Slash.

13. Another type of intertextuality is translation
where the message of the media text is
changed, mostly done the other way
around but the main idea is not.
I didn’t come across any of this type of
intertextuality in my research so I will just
give a brief overview.

14. So to conclude, Intertextuality has many
types, but briefly, intertextuality revolves
around the concept of referring to an
already existing media text and using the
same idea to either pay tribute or to make
fun of it. It is becoming a commonly used
concept with more and more media texts
using this approach nowadays.