Intertextuality is just a fancy way to describe the ways in which themes, content, genre, style, and so forth, get appropriated, and changed in the process, across author/creators and contexts and audiences.
In ‘Poetry Is Not a Luxury’ Audre lorde argues that Poetry is not a luxury (for women) and that it is necessary for their survival and existence. She supports this claim by saying: “Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.” With this she means that with poetry she can express her feelings and thought better. Hopes and dreams are transformed into language through poetry, which then becomes an idea that can be used for action. She refers to the human inner voice as “magic,” emphasizing its power. When women use their voices, they are able to break out of the silence that they have been bullied into by racist and sexist ideologies. Through this power of the voice, through poetry, women can transpose their feelings into a language or rather into poetry. So therefore Poetry is not a luxury but a vital necessity of existence.
- I felt broken since before I can remember
- Underneath it all I have always been searching for a sense of meaning, trying to write into existence some peacefull solution to the constantly, neverending waves of why constantly flooding in my mind.
- Physical and verbal abuse from mothers new husband.
- I kept my mouth shut but my notebook open.
- Silences, at times, must be shattered to make room for the voices of the oppressed.
- When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed. But when we are silent we are still afraid. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive.
- If we do not speak we will be spoken for, written out of history.
- Poetry is not a luxury, it is the battlecry of our revelution, are you listening.
The idea of “intertextuality” comes from the way in which meaningful content can be portrayed across different and often conflicting media formats.
Both forms of “Poetry is Not a Luxury” are the same in some ways and also differ from one another. Both Audre Lorde’s version and the Tedtalk are about the deeper meaning of poetry and that it is so vital for existence and survival. They both believer that trough poetry you can express your feelings that lie deep within us, that you can make change through poetry. Furthermore, both speak of the fact that you have to rise and speak up, be heard. Though, there are also some differences between the two forms of “Poetry Is Not a Luxury”. Where Audre writes about how especially Black women are mistreated and need poetry to survive, Codey Young talks about Black people in general. He also says: “Poetry is not a luxury, it is the battle cry of our revolution, are you listening.” Whereas Audre does not mention that poetry is the battle cry of our revolution once. Codey says he remained silent for decades but kept his notebook open. Audre tried to make a difference by speaking up.
How can texts offer multiple perspectives of a single issue, topic or theme?
Texts can be interpreted various ways and can have different meaning to people. Also different author can have and give several perspectives on a single issue.
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