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effect a specious term for a well-known practice old wine in a new bottle? Classical scholars in particular may be inclined to ask this question and to answer it in the affirmative. Nevertheless, the introduction of the term and the amount of discussion it prompted have undoubtedly focused attention on a number of relevant issues. In what way does the author incorporate the work of a forerunner (the 'praetext') in his own text? How does the reader become aware of the presence of the praetext? And, in particular, what are the function and the effect of the praetext in its new context? I shall deal with the last question in connection with Theocritus' Idyll 13, and a few general observations will be made on the other two. |
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An author may refer to a literary genre without referring to any particular text. Aristophanes' 'tragic' lines, for example, are not always related to a definite passage from tragedy; nevertheless, by their wording and metrical rigour they refer to the tragic genre as a whole. Likewise, the mere choice of a certain metre may conjure up a body of texts composed in this same metre. But in instances like these the praetext is not a definite work which is present, wholly or in part, in the background of the new text. |
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When a work as a whole is meant to refer to another work, the author may indicate this to his readers in various ways. He may do so, for example, by means of the title of his work, by the names he gives to his characters, or by introducing the praetext as an object of interest to his characters.5 In a number of cases such indications will alert even a reader who does not know the praetext(s), simply by making him feel that there is something that he cannot quite grasp. He may then go in search of clues. But if he feels that the text is completely comprehensible to him, the signals will fail to reach him, clear though they may seem to a reader who does know the praetext. |
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The same can be said with regard to references to a definite line or passage from a praetext. Such a reference may be so obvious that no reader can miss it. The following lines from Eliot's The Waste Land are a classic example: |
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Poi s' ascose nel foco che gli affina
Quando fiam uti Chelidon O swDallow swallow
Le Prince d' Aquitaine à la tour abolie |
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Since Eliot is quoting Dante, the Pervigilium Veneris and Gérard de Nerval in the original languages, and since the quotations are printed in italics, the reader will be in no doubt. Moreover, since Eliot has added notes to his poem, the reader can locate the quotations and examine them in their original context. Armed with the necessary knowledge, he may then return to The Waste Land, to ponder their presence there. |
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5 A number of instances, especially concerning the novel, will be found in Broich (1985) 3546. |
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