Framework: Nathalie Melikian's Intertext

This chapter discusses the recent works of Canadian artist Nathalie Melikian, text-based video pieces which explore the interrelationship of genre and intertextuality. Composed of a sequence of pointed text fragments, each work explores the thematic and formal conventions of a familiar filmic genre, for example horror, drawing attention to the question of originality by seemingly uncovering their formulaic construction. While ironically commenting on such procedures, her work simultaneously illustrates the difficulty in avoiding standardised production techniques; her own series adopts the same approach to each genre.

The focus of the paper is on the narrative tensions developed by these pieces. The recognition of familiar elements encourages narrative formation. The alphabetised presentation, and continuous soundtrack, suggest that the accelerated appearance of these framed texts would surely result in a narrative. Yet these discontinuous fragments link not one story but many. These segments, particular instances or general indications, are not text but intertext, a mapping of what Genette might call the architext, a cross-section of a textual matrix. These pieces illustrate the links that dissect every story, the non-linear relations to other, external, stories. Revealing the well-trod paths of generic narrative, they show us also the alternatives, the untold of every narrative.