Original scientific paper
A Biblical Intertext in Three Modernist Writers (Joyce, Lawrence, Krleža)
Višnja Sepčić
Abstract
Assimilation and transformation are of the essence of all intertextual processes. Within the typology of possible intertextual operations worked out by the French theoretician Laurent Jenny a remarkable place is given to the operation he calls »embedding«.This operation refers to cases when »the transplanted texts are only fragments, often lacking an autonomous meaning in isolation The intertextual fragment tends to behave... like a word of a poem in its relationship with its context, with everything that this implies concerning stylistic instability, unverifiability, incongruity.« The text »cited«, considered in this paper, is a fragment from The Song of Songs (»Thy belly is like
a heap of wheat set about with lilies«, Song of Solomon, VII, 2 ), which is to be found in three Modernist writers: Joyce, Lawrence and Krleža. The fragment »cited« has been worked into the texture of the »Proteus« chapter in Ulysses, the description of Anna Brangwen's dance in the chapter »Anna Victrix« in The Rainbow and, in a grotesque inversion, in Krleža's description of Philip Latinovicz picture of a whore's belly in The Return of Philip Latinovicz. In all the three writers the intertextual fragment occurs at a narrative point which is important for the total conception of the work in question and it is linked to the innovative techniques used by these writers. In each of these cases the »cited« fragment participates in an intertextual relationship in a different way and I acquires a different ideology as is characteristic for a culture in crisis.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
120343
URI
Publication date:
15.9.1997.
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