37 Interdiscursivity in French theatre: crossing linguistic and literary perspectives

Abstract

Koch (1997) discusses the notion of interdiscursivity as a complement to the popular but fuzzy term intertextuality, in order to consequently separate discourses and discourse traditions (DTs) as distinct domains of investigation. Although DTs have proven to be a useful concept for linguistics and literary studies (and beyond), the notion of interdiscursivity has not been widely taken up. This chapter therefore aims to analyse interdiscursivity by crossing linguistic and literary perspectives. Two case studies from medieval and early modern French theatre will illustrate how the concept can be used for interdisciplinary textual analyses. In this way, the concept will be situated in relation to intertextuality research, and its advantages over other terminologies will be highlighted.