Post 4

James Porter's essay, "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community," raises important points regarding the composition of written materials and the interpretations of different audiences. All written documents are the products of multiple predetermined ideas and intellectualities. Imagining writing as isolated or individualistic would be limiting the vast diversity of information compiled to form one new document.

Porter also addresses the idea of discourse communities and the language and communication forms displayed by these separate groups. He claims that in the broad scope “readers, not writers, create discourse.” The context of certain words, phrases and definitions can vary significantly across different discourse communities. This is why writing not only comprises a multitude of previous theories and ideas but also evokes an extremely diverse reader interpretation depending on the reader’s community.

When reading a sentence, the wording tells the reader of implied information sometimes independent of the sentence’s intended meaning.  The essay gives the example sentence, “John married Fred’s sister.” This implies that there are two beings, Fred and John, who both exist, and one being, Fred, has a sister.  This adds to the depth of writing as more than an individualistic act.

The author identifies two main problems with understanding the intertextuality of a written piece: limited range and unclear context. People generally have trouble reading outside of their designated discourse communities thus giving them limited range to interpret. Readers also have trouble with relating the original documents to the context of their time, again causing dissonance in the literary understanding of a work.