William Golding's Rites of Passage. A Case of Transtextuality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.199411753Abstract
More or less consciously, all authors rewrite the work of their predecessors, since it is impossible to escape the influence of previous writings. Golding's Rites of Passage uses and abuses the conventions of earlier works very overtly, flaunting its condition of postmodern literary artifact. This paper shows how Rites of Passage makes use of all the five types of transtextual relationships that Genette defines in Palimpsestes —intertextuality, paratextuality, metatextuality, hypertextuality and archtextuality— through which this novel foregrounds its postmodernist flavour. Thus, while noting the complex transtextuality of Rites of Passage, we also point out its historiographic/metafictional character, since both features are closely related.
Downloads
References
ABRAMS, M. H. et al., eds. 1986. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. II. New York: Norton.
BAKER, James R. 1982. "An Interview with William Golding." Twentieth Century Literature. William Golding Issue. 28: 130-170. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/441151
BARTHES, Roland. 1975. The Pleasure of the Text. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang.
BOYD, S. J. 1988. The Novels of William Golding. Sussex: Harvester; New York: St. Martin's.
CAREY, John. 1986. "William Golding talks to John Carey." In William Golding: The Man and his Books. A Tribute on his 75th Birthday. Ed. John Carey. London: Faber. 171-89.
CROMPTON, Don. 1985. A View from the Spire: William Golding's Later Novels. Oxford: Blackwell.
DICK, Bernard F. 1987. William Golding. Revised edition. Boston: Twayne. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/40143413
ECO, Umberto. 1983. Postcript to The Name of the Rose. Trans. William Weaver. San Diego: Harcourt.
GENETTE, Gérard. 1982. Palimpsestes. Paris: Seuil.
JEFFERSON, Ann. 1990. "Autobiography as Intertext: Barthes, Sarraute, Robbe Grillet." In Intertextuality: Theories and practices. Ed. Michael Worton and Judith Still. Manchester: Manchester UP. 108-29.
GOLDING, William. 1966. The Hot Gates and Other Occasional Pieces. 1965. New York: Harcourt.
- - -. 1980. Rites of Passage. London: Faber. Abbreviated as RP.
HAFFENDEN, John. 1985. "William Golding." In Novelists in Interview. London: Methuen. 97-120. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429321160-5
HUTCHEON, Linda. 1988. A Poetics of Postmodernism. History, Theory, Fiction. New York: Routledge.
KINKEAD-WEEKES, and Ian GREGOR. 1984. William Golding: A Critical Study. Revised edition. London: Faber.
POPE, Alexander. 1975. "Essay on Man." In Alexander Pope's Collected Poems. Ed. Bonamy Dobrée. London: Dent.
ROGERS, Pat, ed. 1978. The Eighteenth Century. London: Methuen.
TIGER, Virginia. 1982. "William Golding's 'Wooden World': Religious Rites in Rites of Passage. " Twentieth Century Literature. William Golding Issue. 28: 216-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/441155
WAUGH, Patricia. 1984. Metafiction. The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Fiction. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1771928
Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. 1986. Chicago: Merriam Webster.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
