Abstract
In Skellig, Kit’s Wilderness, and Clay, David Almond employs various types of intertextuality to enrich his narratives. Through the use of allusion, adaptation, collage, and mise-en-abyme, he encourages his adolescent readers to seek out precursor texts and to consider the interrelationships between these texts and his own. By so doing, he demonstrates the respect he has for his readers and empowers them to become active makers of meaning.
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Notes
The term “pastiche” might also be used to describe this technique, as it too denotes “a literary work composed from elements borrowed either from various other writers or from a particular writer” (Baldick 2004, 185–186). However, I am deliberately avoiding this term because of its (sometimes) negative connotations. Frederic Jameson, for instance, in Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism defines pastiche as a kind of empty or blank parody (17). Almond’s use of fragments from Blake’s poems, I would argue, is neither parodic nor empty, but rather an homage to a poet whose sensibilities he sees as being quite similar to his own. For that reason, I prefer the more neutral term “collage.”
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Don Latham is an assistant professor in the College of Information at Florida State University, where he teaches courses in resources for young adults, international literature for youth, and information services. His research interests include magical realism, gender and identity issues, and socialization and subversion in young adult literature.
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Latham, D. Empowering Adolescent Readers: Intertextuality in Three Novels by David Almond. Child Lit Educ 39, 213–226 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-007-9052-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-007-9052-6