INTERTEXTUALITY IN ELIZABETH GASKELL’S WIVES AND DAUGHTERS WASSILA HAMZA REGUIG MOURO Department of Foreign Languages, Section of English, University of Tlemcen, Algeria ABSTRACT Intertextuality can be considered as a complex process of intertwined influences and relationships of texts, authors, genres and the outside world. Gerard Genette uses the term „transtextuality‟ rather than that of intertextuality, and proposes five types: Intertextuality, paratextuality, architextuality, metatextuality, and hypotextuality. There are several examples of intertextuality in Wives and Daughters . For instance, in naming the governess of Molly Gibson Miss Eyre, Elizabeth Gaskell is, according to the five „transtextuality‟ subparts of Gerard Genette, making use of hyp otextuality (Genette 1996, 2007). The interest in the paper is mostly focused on the novel of Mrs. Gaskell Wives and Daughters which is not only a work of fiction but beyond that it is about metafiction, so what is intertextuality? How does the writer use the techniques of this concept? And of course for what purpose? According to Lodge, intertextuality “is not, or not necessarily, a merely decorative addition to a text, but sometimes a crucial factor in its conception and composition” (1992: 102). One may formulate it differently; intertextuality helps to shape a work of art and not only to embellish it, therefore it determines form and content. KEYWORDS: Intertextuality, Metafiction, Text, Reader INTRODUCTION Intertextuality is a subtle interplay of writing and re-writing, and as it is maintained, “is the very basis of literature...all texts are woven from the tissues of other texts” (Lodge 1992: 98 -99). and according to Lodge, intertextuality helps to shape a work of art and not only to embellish it, therefore it determines form and content (1992: 102). Thus, what is intertextuality? What are the techniques of integrating the intertext used by Mrs. Gaskell in Wives and Daughters? And what is the purpose of using it? DEFINING INTERTEXTUALITY According to Mikhail Bakhtin, the “European novel prose is born and shaped in the process of a free (that is, reformulating) translation of other‟s works” (1981: 378). For Bakhtin, the novel is where intertextuality is more intense than in other literary genres, though he never uses the term intertextuality, rather, he proposes „polyphony‟ which in its turn implies dialogism (Achour & Bekkat 2002: 104-5). A dialogism not only between texts and authors, but between texts and „the world of lived experience‟ as Scott Lash observes (Chandler 2008). Michel Foucault writes „each work belongs to the indefinite murmur of writing‟ (Achour & Bekkat 2002: 117). It is this „murmur‟ that gives literature its memory. Intertextual ity is then a complex process of intertwined influences and relationships of texts, authors, genres and the outside world. Umberto Eco argues that „no text is read independently from the experience that the reader has from other texts International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN(P): 2249-6912; ISSN(E): 2249-8028 Vol. 3, Issue 5, Dec 2013, 37-42 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.