Intertextual Reading Of The Picture Of Derien Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is the only novel of the British writer Oscar Wilde.Its publication aroused great controversy in the late Victorian society. For more than100 years, Oscar Wilde and his novel have been studied from various perspectiveswith often contradictory interpretations, including thematic study, psychoanalysis,cultural studies and gender study, etc. However, few researches have been made fromintertextual perspective.Intertextual theory emerged from the literary trends of structuralism andpost-structuralism. It recognizes and illustrates the traditional techniques that describethe relation between different texts. It also calls attention to the production of textualmeaning as well as the relationship between conventions and innovations. Theintertextual theory of Gérard Genette pays attention not only to its theoretical use butalso to its practice in concrete texts. Genette coins the term transtextuality to cover allinstances of the phenomenon, but actually it is equal to intertextuality in its generaluse by critics and scholars. Transtextuality is actually structuralist intertextuality. Thisthesis conducts an intertextual study of Dorian Gray within the framework of GérardGenette's intertextual theory, focusing primarily on the intertexts, paratexts, hypotextsand architexts of the novel.The thesis holds that Dorian Gray is a highly intertextual novel, offering thereader open space for interpretation and thus lending the novel great vitality. The firstchapter gives an introduction to the author, the novel's plot and its critical reception.The second chapter is intertextual reading of the novel dealing with the actualpresence of one text within another in the form of quotation, plagiarism and allusion.The following chapter explores paratextual elements which lie on the threshold of thetext of Dorian Gray, including the preface, authorial epitexts and contextualaffiliations which serve to direct and control the reception of the text by readers. Thefourth chapter examines the novel's hypertextual relation with other texts in the form of transformation and imitation. And the hypotexts concerned are the novel's firstedition, Doctor Faustus and A Rebours. The last chapter analyzes the novel's dynamicrelationship with some genres or subgenres, that is, drama and Gothic novel. DorianGray draws inspirations from and improves on them.The application of intertextual theory to the reading of Dorian Gray will enableus to explore the rich intertextuality in this novel and its dynamic relationship withvarious foretexts, therefore providing a new perspective in interpreting this novel. Atthe same time, this study will constitute a critical practice of intertextual theory.