Any text is constructed as a mosaic of quotations.
Any text is the absorption and transformation of another.
These words, which are obviously not mine,
but by Julia Kristeva from 1967,
probably form the most often quoted definition
when it comes to the concept of intertextuality.
The phenomenon naturally is as old
as recorded human literature itself.
The thesis is that every text is influenced
by previous texts and in one way
or the other incorporates them.
Don Latham emphasizes, quote,
no text can escape being intertextual
even if the author wanted it to,
but some texts are more overtly,
more consciously intertextual than others, end of quote.
This assumption certainly applies
to fantasy fiction for young adults,
which frequently feed from archetypal motives
taken from mythology, legends, fairy tales, or the Bible.
Amanda Hemingway belongs to the authors
who openly and unabashedly dip into the cauldron of stories,
as Tolkien calls it, or in Philip Pullman's words,
she is one of the authors who read like a butterfly
and write like a bee.
In her Sangreel trilogy,
which was published between 2004 and 2006,
Hemingway develops a compelling variation
of the Arthurian legends and thus creates
a subliminal frame of intertextuality.
Her three volumes, The Greenstone Grail,
The Traitor's Sword, and this was called
The Sword of Straw in the USA,
and The Poisoned Crown
feature the adolescent protagonist Nathan.
He is born under mysterious circumstances
that very much remind the reader
of the immaculate conception of the Bible.
The young adult discovers his extraordinary ability
to dream himself into other universes.
Eventually, he finds himself destined
to seek mythical relics from other planets
and transport them into his own world
to prevent evil forces to get their hands on them.
In accordance with the rhythm of the traditional quest,
Nathan retrieves one artifact per volume.
Together, the three objects will be needed for a great spell,
the exact outcome of which remains unknown to Nathan
until the very end.
Especially the first relic, The Greenstone Grail,
is clearly evocative of the Arthurian legends
and the Holy Grail.
While Nathan goes on his quest into the other worlds
to retrieve these three objects of power,
evil forces are trying to get a hold on him
in his real world too, leading to mysterious incidents
and murders in his small village near London.
Only with the support of his friends,
his devoted mother, and a wise old mentor Bartlemy,
and here we have the typical Merlin figure,
only with their support is Nathan able
to accomplish his task.
So far, Hemingway's Sangreel trilogy might not strike you
as being particularly exceptional.
The repetition of famous motives from legends
and mythology and modern fantasy fiction
is after all fairly common.
Apart from these underlying patterns however,
and this is what struck me as most enthralling,
Hemingway's narrative is spiced up
with numerous direct references to 21st century pop culture
and to various of her fantasy predecessors.
How is the reading experience changed
by these obvious knots to other works of literature?
And what does Hemingway accomplish
with her overt use of intertextuality?
Firstly, unlike many fantasy writers
who locate the action of their works
in rather archaic settings,
Hemingway hardly ever misses an opportunity
to emphasize that her protagonist Nathan
is a typical contemporary British youngster.
He drinks Coke, which his mum buys at the local Sainsbury's,
uses a mobile phone with a pay-as-you-go deal,
plays Nintendo and watches Neighbors,
goes to McDonald's or Cafe Nero during the day,
and to a new disco at night
where one of the other teenagers is caught selling E.
People around him drive BMWs or the new-look Volkswagen
Beetle and can call the AA if they have a problem
with their cars.
They have agar kitchen equipments,
clean their houses with dyes and vacuums,
and look up phone numbers in the yellow pages or Google them.
And I could go on for hours.
By accommodating a whole range of these up-to-date brand names
into her three volumes and by including real place names
like Crawley or London, Hemingway leaves no doubt
that Nathan's world is set
at the beginning of 21st century Britain.
All these references establish Nathan as a mirror image
of the typical teenage reader of Hemingway's books
and provide points for identification.
Nathan's world seems to be as real as can be.
Allusions to science and physics additionally give
his world plausibility, if not even probability.
Until he finds out about his unusual ability
to enter other universes in his sleep,
he is presented as a down-to-earth boy
for whom magic and fantastic events are first of all
something that can only be encountered in books or movies.
The same holds for most of his fellows
who when confronted with his magical abilities
suggest that he has, quote,
been watching too many science fiction movies,
end of quote, and that, quote, it's all nonsense.
Fairy tales and fantasy, end of quote.
The character of the local police officer, Pop Joy,
who investigates the mysterious murders in the real world,
represents the climax of mundane reasoning.
He is not thoroughly acquainted with science fiction,
myths, and fantasy, and remains skeptical
when hearing about Nathan's expeditions into other worlds.
According to Pop Joy, Nathan's story is, quote, preposterous.
Perhaps not a direct lie,
but some sort of bizarre juvenile exaggeration.
Harry Potter syndrome, a condition where children imagined
they were living in a magical world populated by wizards and monsters,
end of quote.
Pop Joy's practical common sense
also prevents him from grasping the village talks.
Following the mysterious murders,
the people in the village talk about supernatural powers
and about Lorelai's, the beautiful maidens
luring sailors into their doom.
Pop Joy asked Nathan's mother, Annie, quote,
how come everyone knows about these things except me?
It depends what books you read when you were a child.
Annie said, most of us get through Hans Anderson,
The Brothers Grimm, The Chronicles of Narnia,
Tolkien, Alan Garna, Roger Lancelyn Green.
What did you read?
Sherlock Holmes.
Good stuff, Annie said.
I read those too.
But if you're going to go chasing Lorelai's,
you've got some catching up to do, end of quote.
In the third volume, The Poison Crown,
it is again stressed that Pop Joy, quote,
had read few of the right books, but had once inadvertently
watched a documentary on the making of Narnia, end of quote.
In contrast, Hemingway acknowledges that the young protagonist Nathan,
quote, had read a lot of the right books.
He'd read about spells that make heroes
invincible and invulnerable, end of quote.
It is always works which belong to the fantasy genre
that Hemingway labels the right books,
according to her self-made category.
At times, her narrative reads like an advertising campaign
for the fantasy classics, such as when Nathan declares, quote,
if we know a story is made up, then it doesn't matter.
It's good.
We learn from stories, end of quote.
According to Nathan's mother, Annie, police officer Pop Joy
needs to read fantasy to think more creatively,
and thus make the necessary links in his investigations.
To introduce him to fantasy literature,
she provides him with copies of The Wind in the Willows, The Midnight
Forks, and Pratchett's Guards Guards.
Just as it is expected from Pop Joy that he acquaints himself
with the right books, the reader of Hemingway's trilogy
needs to know various works of fantasy literature
to get the best out of her narrative.
The knowledge of previously published ubiquitous fantasies
is not only acknowledged, but used as a prerequisite
to understand the ironic nuances of her text.
Various fantasy works of literature and cinema
are referred to directly by their title
and are therefore easily recognizable as such.
Thus, for example, the wizard Bartlemy's Doc Hoover
is said to be like Nana in Peter Pan,
or like Scooby-Doo in a lighter scene.
When Nathan receives a file with an enchanted potion,
he comments, quote, drink me like Alice in Wonderland.
Maybe I'll shrink to the size of a plankton, end of quote.
And of whom is his mother, Annie,
reminded when visiting their new neighbors
and hearing that the wife lives in her own tower, for which not
even her husband has a key.
Yes, Bluebird's chamber, quote, stacked
with the bodies of her ex-husbands, end of quote.
An intuitive association which, by the way,
proves not to be that far fetched after all,
but I don't want to spoil this suspense here.
The examples are versatile and almost endless,
ranging from folkloric sources, such as the Scarborough Fair
lyrics, to Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Tempest, and Macbeth,
to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem A Musical Instrument,
to Agatha Christie's Miss Marple crime novels.
References to works of fantasy, however,
take up the largest part of the intertextual pie.
Book and movie titles are, of course,
easily identifiable for the reader.
But there are more hints and allusions
to famous works that are woven more intricately
into the fabric of Hemingway's narrative.
These literary works are not referred to by their titles,
but rather by character and place names,
or by famous quotes or patterns.
They might consequently only be detected
by attentive bookworms who are acquainted
with the respective stories.
Jill Tedford-Jones comments, quote,
in all cases, the writer depends on the reader
to remember and recognize the host text, end of quote.
The question arises whether Hemingway's exclusive target
group is children and young adults after all.
Thus, only four readers of Bronte's Jane Eyre,
the neighbor's following remark to Nathan's mother
about his wife in the private tower of his house,
will ring a bell.
Quote, if she's going mad, maybe I
could lock her in the attic, go all dark and brooding,
and you and I could, sorry, end of quote.
Only readers of the Alice books will recognize the mother's
remark, quote, curiouser and curiouser, end of quote.
And it needs at least a slight familiarity
with Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
to spot the straightforward illusion in the description,
quote, Nathan was a down-to-earth boy
who had yet to find a magical country
at the back of the wardrobe.
So it was unnerving for him to find one in his head,
end of quote.
When finding himself wearing his pajamas
after having entered another universe in his sleep,
Nathan jokingly comments, quote, the curse
of travelers in other worlds, from the children who
followed Peter Pan into Neverland
to Arthur Dent on his galactic voyages.
He wasn't particularly fashion-minded,
but he really didn't want to meet the princes, that
is, the princes of another universe,
for the first time as a pajama-clad specter.
I am the ghost of Christmas past,
he said to himself with a sigh, end of quote.
In this one paragraph, Hemingway alludes
to the works of Barry, Douglas Adam, and Charles Dickens,
and thus reveals how dense her narrative really is.
It is mainly in moments when they step into the magic realm
or get in touch with supernatural forces
that Hemingway's characters are reminded of the fantasy
works they have read.
The contents of the novels thrust themselves repeatedly
upon them.
Hemingway pays close attention to being authentic in that
her adult characters see analogies with the classics
primarily, while Nathan's associations as a youngster
additionally involve slightly more recent works
and cinematic influences such as Star Wars.
It is usually in dialogues and in free indirect discourse
that Hemingway makes use of the device of intertextuality.
Thus, it is not only the narrator,
but the characters who draw comparisons of their own adventures
with their famous predecessors.
Although detecting similarities, Hemingway's characters
repeatedly feel that the literary heroes they have read about
cannot fully function as role models.
Nathan and his friends come to the conclusion that, quote,
life isn't like stories, end of quote,
and that magic does not work the way they have encountered it
in popular fiction.
Nathan's friend Hazel, who tries to work magic,
plays the theme music from Lord of the Rings because, quote,
she had hoped it would be suitably atmospheric,
end of quote, and puts up a candle because, quote,
in Buffy, willow always lit candle
when she was doing magic, end of quote.
Nothing happens.
Protagonist Nathan, fighting against a huge monster
in one of the other universes, also
feels betrayed by the unrealistic smooth course
in The Lord of the Rings, quote, this
was a moment when you needed an Elvish star glass and words
like Elbereth, Gilthoniel, end of quote.
But Nathan cannot think of an equivalent of this Elvish hymn
to help him.
To Nathan, it feels as if he had to suffer more hardship
than the heroes from the books he has read,
and that the choices he has to make
are far more difficult than in popular fiction.
He, for instance, reflects that, quote, real adventures weren't
about Hogwarts and muggles and good guys and bad guys.
Real adventures were shadows and confusion and doubt
and a terrifying personal responsibility, end of quote.
It certainly seems as if Amanda Hemingway
feels a personal grudge against Rowling's Harry Potter series,
as she also lets her young characters make each other pay,
quote, 10p in the for-fat box for mentioning the h-word,
end of quote.
Her treatment of the Harry Potter books,
however, is completely in line with her overall ironic tone.
By drawing comparisons to the stories they have read,
the young adults realize again and again
that they are no, quote, fairy tale heroes rubbing
a lamp to get a genie.
This was the real world, or at least this was a real world,
where rubbing a lamp gave you nothing but a cleaner lamp,
end of quote.
Hemingway thus lays a veil of real life experiences
on her fantasy trilogy.
The reader, however, never forgets
that the overall structure and the ground layer
of her narrative is pure fantasy itself.
By letting her characters trot on and sometimes question
well-worn fantasy paths, Hemingway
shows her awareness of the tradition she is building upon.
Wittingly engaging in a play with former fantasy
works and literary conventions, the author
raises an awareness of her trilogy
belonging to the fantasy genre as well.
In this respect, the author's intertextual illusions
reach the border of meta-fictionality.
With their narrative self-consciousness
and their playful nature, Hemingway's three stories
meet Martin Horst's definition of meta-fiction
as, quote, fiction that provides a self-conscious commentary
on its own fictionality, end of quote.
Hemingway thus revives and cultivates a tradition
in children's fantasy literature which can already
be found, for example, in fairy tale parodies
from the Victorian era.
To recapitulate, Hemingway adds her personal flavor
to the fantasy genre in a three-fold way.
First, with her knots to popular culture
and various intertextual references,
she meets the readers in their own worlds.
She represents them with a protagonist
who is one of them, who is acquainted
with the same popular literature and movies.
Maria Nikolaieva detects an overall trend
in postmodern fiction that, quote,
contemporary characters tend to become more like real people,
appearing on low, mimetic, and ironic levels, end of quote.
Secondly, Hemingway shows faith in her audience
as thoughtful, intelligent readers who
will spot the intertextual references,
or, if not, might be encouraged to read and reflect
on a variety of texts, from folk tales to poems and plays,
but preferably what she terms the right books.
That is, books belonging to the fantasy genre.
She invites the readers to recognize
the interrelationship between a variety of texts.
Those wishing to gloss over Hemingway's references
can do so without losing the threat of her narrative.
For those readers who recognize the connections,
however, a richer, enhanced reading experience awaits.
It is precisely these intertextual,
metafictional insinuations that apparently make
Hemingway's novels attractive for a dual audience of young
adults and adults.
No scholarly research on her trilogy
has been undertaken so far, but as reviews
of the St. Reel trilogy reveal, adults
enjoy the hilarious interludes and the wholly original effect
of Hemingway's blending technique.
The reviewer, Victoria Strauss, comments, quote,
though marketed as YA, the St. Reel trilogy
is a crossover work that can be enjoyed equally by adults,
end of quote.
Thirdly, Hemingway raises an awareness
of literary conventions, especially
of the fantasy genre itself.
Although, overall, she faithfully
follows the common pattern, herself irony
shines through when she consciously
holds the readers out of their absorption with a storyline
and makes them think about genre conventions.
This mode of writing, which clearly
can be termed metafictional, provides,
as Joe Sutliff Sanders stresses, quote, a pee.
Or if that fails, a pumpkin beneath the mattress
that causes the formerly comfortable reader to stir.
Thank you.