Situated Intertextuality: Networks, Borders and the Space of Literature

At the centre of this essay's argument lies an understanding of the text as a spatial form. Immediately, the word 'text' itself assumes a particular significance, bringing to mind the printed word on the page, black ink on white pages, and the actual physicality of the book as an object which occupies a volume in space. Yet, the word text also implies something more. Literally meaning something woven, something web-like and connecting, the final image of the spatialised text is of a network of inter-connected physical, phonetic and semantic relations. The aim of this essay, however, is not to explore the spatiality of the text, but rather the spatiality of the intertext, for it is the nature of the text that this network is not contained within it but forever bridges its boundaries to connect with others. To speak of 'a text' may be to speak of a particular work but it also implies that the work is a part of a larger textuality, a more expansive Text. Here, we are concerned with the ways in which this intertextuality is conceived of and produced, dealing specifically with the spatial form of this intertextual network but also investigating the ways in which it interacts with our own social space.