Presents a series of ethnographic case studies that look at intertextuality as communicative practice. This book presents a perspective on intertextuality: the idea that written and spoken texts speak to one another, for example through genre or allusions.
Shortlisted for Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2005.
Drawing on a broad range of oral performances and literary records from Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, North America, Ghana, and Fiji, linguistic anthropologist and folklorist Richard Bauman presents a series of ethnographic case studies that offer an innovative and illuminating look at intertextuality as communicative practice.
Bauman uses his introduction to lay a framework for the analysis of genre, performance, and intertextuality as discursive accomplishments. He goes on to examine the ways that performers blend genres and then explores how they manage intertextual links or gaps by aligning texts in discursive practice. Finally, Bauman draws together these threads and turns his insights to a critical consideration of ethnographic practice itself, bringing into reflexive awareness the ways that ethnography positions us in a world of others' words.
