THE INTERTEXTUALITY INSIDE STARDUS BY NEIL GAIMAN

THE INTERTEXTUALITY INSIDE STARDUST BY NEIL GAIMAN

By Antonio Deodato Marques Leão

Over the centuries, writers have appropriated earlier texts to produce their works. They take old stories, myths, and ideas of his predecessors, adapting them to various artistic media, imitating them. This appropriation and imitation continue until today in other formats involving other issues such as copyright but certainly extend into eternity. However, we do not claim that art is not renewed. Quite the contrary, this process recreates the reframes and at every moment by the artist's skillful hands.

Imitation is intrinsically present in human nature. Take for example the theater: the play imitates men, who, likewise, when watching a play, imitate the example shown. Therefore, Aristotle argues that the representation should contain moral values that should be imitated.

By imitating, a writer not only reproduces the earlier work, he usually adds his point of view, beliefs, and ideologies, often adapting the text prior to his political and social context. When you create your text, the author of several speeches mixes fragments, creating thus a heterogeneous reading. The interrelationship of discourses from different times or different linguistic areas is not new and may even say that he has always characterized the poetic activity. At all times, the literary text emerged linking with other prior or contemporaneous texts, literature always born of, and literature (PERRONE-MOYSES, 1993).

With this assumption, the texts produced over the centuries do not contain anything new, as are a series of other texts ever written. It can be compared to making quilts that take advantage of the leftovers of other works. These pieces, until then disposable, are tailored and reused, creating a new object. However, artists do not use disposable pieces but use the very best of previous work. By observing a painting, watching a movie, reading a poem or a novel, it is possible to notice the existence of relations with other pieces or works. The ability of stitches, uniting ideas, is what distinguishes the works of art.

The ideas come from the readings of the author: their influences, their life experiences, and their worldview. When the authors sew the chosen pieces with their lines, they produce new work. This is reactivated by the perception of the reader, where both the writer and the reader participate in the "collective system of knowledge of enunciation." (PAULINE, WALTY and CURY, 2006).

By bringing traces of previous productions, the new text automatically renews the old, under a new artistic perspective. By sewing several pieces, we call intertextuality.

The concept of intertextuality was first used by Julia Kristeva in 1969 and consists of "crossing a text of statements taken from other texts," "implement [...] of statements earlier or synchronous" (SAMOYAULT, 2008). However, its foundations emerged from the theoretical assumptions of Michail Bakhtin to analyze the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In his famous essay, Bakhtin says there is a plurality of voices in each novel, so each character is a world. The charge stated beliefs, characters, and personal experiences of each character produce a dialogue with other texts. The unity of the novel is inserted into the multiplicity of discourses. Based on this idea, Kristeva compares the text to a mosaic and affirms that "every text is an absorption of another text."

A patchwork quilt and have the same essence, they are related to products created from other products. The various pieces form the genealogy of the new work. The dialogism of Bakhtin is connected to the universe of creation where the "literary texts endlessly open dialogue of literature with its historicity.” (SAMOYAULT, 2008). Therefore, allusions, quotations, parodies, pastiches, or even plagiarism are a way of fishing the past. By recovering the past or taking ownership of contemporary texts, topics are taken from a text on the other (s).

One example of intertextuality is the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It is a fanciful tale involving a young man and his heart's desire. Tristran Thorn travels through the wall outside of the village Wall in search of a star to win the hand of his love. First of all, it is necessary to know when the novel was written. Neil Gaiman wrote it in 1998. So, this is a contemporary work. However, the story takes place in the 1800s. It has commented upon the degree to which this novel makes allusions to Victorian fairy tales and culture. In chapter one Gaiman refers to another novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens; the photograph of the moon by Mr. Draper; and the way of transmitting messages down metal wires by Mr. Morse. These mentions mix historical facts with imagination.

Culturally, there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism concerning religion, social values, and arts. This passage can be represented when Tristran Thorn beyond the wall. For us, the most important evidence of intertextuality is The village of Wall where Tristran lives. The Wall is named for the wall that borders it to the east. The wall separates Wall’s habitants from Faeries. It can symbolize the barrier that separates the real world from the fantasy world.

Also, the Wall is an obstacle between the physical and the ethereal. Also, the Wall may be interpreted as a sign of oppression because it is prohibited to go through it. This allusion can be representative of The Berlin Wall that divided capitalism and socialism between Germany until 1989.

In the story, there are three witches in Stardust that may have been taken from Macbeth of Willian Shakespeare. They desire the Yvaine's heart to eat it, to restore their eternal youth. The Elixir of Life or Elixir of Immortality is present in some mythologies, which some foods with similar properties would give life and eternal youth for those who consume them. In Greek mythology, Ambrosia, the food of the gods of Olympus, was so powerful that if a mortal ate it, would gain immortality. In Norse mythology, the apples of a bone whose guardian is Iduna could give eternal life to the gods (which this mythology is mortal). Many legends surround fountains of youth, whose properties are similar to the elixir of life, this source was described by the Spanish and other crops. (WIKIPEDIA, 2012).

Along the way, Tristran discovers many things, most importantly that sometimes a person might not know what his true heart's desire is. This heart desire is linked to the conception of the pure heart myth of King Arthur. He was the only one who can withdraw Excalibur of the stone because of his honesty and purity. These discoveries make us reflect on our ambitions and what is important in this life. The search for material objects did not fulfill our existence, making human beings unhappy.

Neil Gaiman also dialogues with the universe of literature by the insert of the poem of John Donne (1572 – 1631). Song illustrates the idea that if two people are truly in love nothing can separate them, including death, because their love for each other is true and not superficial. Stardust dialogues with Song demonstrating that true love cannot be superficial, like the love that Tristran feels by Victoria.

The theory of intertextuality reshapes the understanding of the influence of literature inside of artistic studies. Marko Juvan highlights:

“Intertextuality as a framework offers a refined terminology of forms and functions of both domestic and foreign literature’ creative reception while respecting specific linguistic and cultural spaces, traditions, and literary system. It deconstructed the postulate of influence; for example, the concepts of author, the logic of cause and effect, and boundaries between texts” (JUVAN, 2008, p.01)

With this assumption, the texts produced over the centuries do not contain anything new, because they are a sequence of what was written before. To produce a text can be compared to making quilts that take advantage of the leftovers of other works. These pieces, until then disposable, are tailored and reused, creating a new object. However, artists do not use disposable pieces but use the very best of previous work. Squares become circles, circles in half-moons. The flaps can be superimposed; plain fabrics mixed with colorful fabrics. The limit is creativity.

But identifying the connections between texts is not an easy task. We should point out that many patches are inserted inside of the lines or folds of the seam, not becoming apparent on the surface of the text, leaving the reader to identify them. Michael Riffaterre states that in every text there is the intertext, which would be "the phenomenon that guides the reading of the text, which governs its interpretation if necessary, and that is contrary to linear reading" (RIFFATERRE, 1981, p. Apub SAMOYAULT 05, 2008 . p. 25). By "reading" a painting, a movie, a poem, or a novel, it is possible to identify the craftsmanship of the artist and the existence of other pieces of art and other texts. The ability to manage the quality of the needle and stitches, which combine the ideas that differentiate the works, so it is up to the writer, by devoting him or destroying him.

Having the ability to perceive the various flaps and the link between the works is a merit of the reader, according to his literary background. Perceive the presence of a text into another, so it is a skill that is connected to the memory of the reader. The more the individual reads, the more capacity will have to understand the intertextual features contained in the text. The reader's memory is one of three pieces that make up the literary memory. The other two parts are the author's memory and the memory of the text. Thus, traces of intertextuality can only be realized if the reader has in his library literary wealth enough to consult it.

In Conclusion, Stardust, by Neil Gaiman, illustrates the connection between artistic productions and the authors’ creativity. Studying these kinds of artistic expressions and activating our literary memory not only makes the reading more interesting, but it also helps us to understand what happens in the authors’ minds before: Where do they collect and develop their ideas? How do they rewrite previous works? Who inspired them? How do they absorb this inspiration? How do these new constructions affect and influence the new public and new artists? The intertextuality studies propose a huge connection’s net in artistic production. Being an effective tool to the new writers and to analyze the sources that dialogue and promote the artistic productions.

REFERÊNCIAS

JUVAN, Marko. Towards a history of intertextuality in literary and cultural studies. Available in:

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1370&context=clcweb . Accessed on December 18, 2021.

PAULINO, Graça; WALTY, Ivete; CURY, Maria Zilda. Intertextualidades teoria e prática. 6. ed. São Paulo: Formato, 2005.

PERRONE-MOISÉS, Leyla. Texto, Crítica, Escritura. São Paulo: Ática, 1993.

SAMOYAULT, Tiphaine. A Intertextualidade. Tradução: Sandra Nitini. São Paulo: Aderaldo & Rothschild, 2008.