Abstract
The thesis that every text is a „mosaic of quotations. from other texts becomes particularly obvious when examining literary fantasy, which refers to the implied readers. previous reading rather than to real life. An analysis of Tolkien.s work shows that differences of style and narrative technique can be described as due to the choice of different pre-texts. In The Hobbit, fairy-tale and epic discourses are juxtaposed with everyday speech pattern through irony and parody. In The Lord of the Rings, elements of the nineteenth-century novel like circumstantial realism and pathetic fallacy are supplemented by archaic rhetorical patterns. The concept of intertextuality also enables us to examine the relationship between text and reader.
Highlights
The thesis that every text is a „mosaic of quotations‟ from other texts becomes obvious when examining literary fantasy, which refers to the implied readers‟ previous reading rather than to real life
The aim of my paper is to validate the concepts of discourse and intertextuality as tools of cultural and literary analysis
Compared to more traditional terms and approaches, the concepts in question have the advantage of providing a composite view of aspects of texts usually examined separately: signifiants and signifiés, linguistic and thematic aspects, argumentative structure as well as stylistic and rhetorical analyis
Summary
The thesis that every text is a „mosaic of quotations‟ from other texts becomes obvious when examining literary fantasy, which refers to the implied readers‟ previous reading rather than to real life. I propose to analyse and compare J.R.R. Tolkien‟s two bestselling fantasies, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as to the pre-texts „quoted‟. Many readers, including most of those who belong to the huge Tolkien fan community, look at The Lord of the Rings as a narrative sequel to The Hobbit.
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