This document discusses James Porter's concept of intertextuality and discourse communities. Some key points: - Intertextuality challenges the idea of the writer as a lone genius and instead sees writing as constrained and situated within various discourses and traditions. - Writers are influenced by 11 different types of texts and act as "collectors of fragments" when piecing together their own writing. - Discourse communities are groups bound by common interests that regulate acceptable communication within the group. Writers belong to multiple discourse communities that further influence their work. - No text is truly original or the product of a single author, as all writing borrows and builds on previous texts through intertextual references and traditions.

1. “INTERTEXTUALITY
and the Discourse Community”
Written by, James Porter Rhetoric Review 1986
Presentation by, Dr. Iris D. Ruiz

2. CHALLENGES THE MISCONCEPTION OF THE
FREE WRITER/LONELY WRITER
-The idea of Intertextuality
challenges the idea of the Writer as
a free and uninhibited spirit.
-The writer is always situated in
many discourses at once (the 11
kinds texts on next slide)
-(35) According to this view, authorial intention is less
significant than social
context; the writer is simply a part of a discourse
tradition, a member of a team,
and a participant in a community of discourse that
creates its own collective
meaning. Thus the intertext constrains writing.

3. Writer as a “Collector of
fragments” (34).
When we piece together our thoughts on a topic,
these parts are essentially made up of the
following:
1. Texts….What kind?
2. Visual Texts (Digital, Cultural, and Mundane)
3. Personal Texts (Literal) (Pathos)
4. Academic Texts (Ethos) (Discourse)
5. Social Commentary/Media (Digital Texts)
6. Personal Experience (Empirical Evidence)
7. Outside Voices offering their experience
8. Artistic Texts (Constraints)
9. Literary Texts (Romantic, Post-Modern)
10. Religious Texts (Various)
11. Historical Texts (Various)

4. V
Visual Religious Intertext

5. The Web of Meaning
-Vgotsky’s “Web of Meaning” postulates
that all texts are interconnected like a
spider web.
-This can be referred to as Logos or the
way a text is sewn together to create
meaning.
-The sources that produces that
meaning comes from the 11 mentioned
previously.
-34 The most mundane manifestation of
intertextuality is explicit citation, but
intertextuality animates all discourse
and goes beyond mere citation.

6. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AS
INTERTEXT
-Was Thomas Jefferson the real
author of the Declaration of
Independence?
-No. The Declaration of
independence is an intertextual
text in that it borrows from a
pastiche of texts and is sewn
together to demonstrate a new
textual creation.
-Borrowed from John Locke’s
Social Contract Theory

7. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AND OUR
OWN INTERTEXTUAL EXAMPLES
-And the most memorable
phrases in the Declaration seem to be least Jefferson's: "That all men are created
equal" is a sentiment from Euripides which Jefferson copied in his literary commonplace
book as a boy; "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" was a
cliche of the times (late 18th cent), appearing in numerous political documents (Dumbauld).
-Was Jefferson a creative genius or a blatant plagiarist?
-Our intertextual examples dealt with the following issues:
1. We live in America, so we should speak English.
2. We live in America, so we should know more than one language.
We used intertextuality as a way to conceive of two authors that can inform these 2 issues.
• How would Anzaldua and Rodriguez debate these issues? We referred to quotes from the
texts to respond to one another. For example:

8. INTERTEXTUALITY AND DISCOURSE
COMMUNITIES
• A discourse community is a group of individuals bound by a common interests who
communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated.
• p. Some discourse communities are firmly established, such as the scientific community,
the medical profession, and the justice system
• An individual may belong to several professional, public, or personal discourse
communities. Examples would include the community of engineers whose research area
is fluid mechanics; alumni of the University of Michigan; Magnavox employees; the
members of the Porter family; and members of the Indiana Teachers of Writing. (39)
• What are some discourse communities that you all belong to?

9. IS THERE A SUCH THING AS AN ORIGINAL TEXT?
• We are free insofar as we do what we can to encounter and learn new codes, to intertwine
codes in new ways, and to expand our semiotic potential-with our goal being to effect
change and establish our identities within the discourse communities we choose to enter.
• We can do this by putting two unrelated voices in common like that of Anzaldua and
Rodriguez.
• "The struggle of the student writer is not the struggle to bring out that which is within; it is
the struggle to carry out those ritual activities that grant our entrance into a closed
society" (Bartholomae 300).

10. QUOTES AS INTERTEXT
• We use quotes to talk to each other.
• We use quotes to support our own points.
• We make points with other peoples texts even when our arguments are counter to their
claims.
• I.E.: Conversation between two unlikely conversants.
• Anzaldua says: (108) “I am visible—see this face—yet I am invisible. I both blind them
with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I exist, we exist. They’d like to think I have
melted in the pot. But I haven’t, we haven’t.
• Rodriguez says: Rodriguez recollects family members’ fears of having children with dark
skin and his mother’s constant concern that Rodriguez stay out of the sun. At the age of
eleven or twelve, Rodriguez had attempted to shave off the brown of his skin

11. CULTURE/IDENTITY AS AN INTERTEXTUAL DEBATE--
-- 1ST 2ND 3RD WAVE FEMINISM VS. WOMANISM
VS.
I am possessed by a vision:
that we Chicanas and
Chicanos have taken back or
uncovered our true faces, our
dignity, our self-respect. (109)
As Gay points out, Beyoncé's a "great feminist"
who "happens to be sexy" and no longer wears
pants. It's all about freedom of choice, right?
Beyonce is a feminist because she says she
is...