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RWS - 11 - Lesson 4

This document discusses the importance of understanding the context in which a text is developed and read. It defines context as the social, cultural, political, and historical circumstances surrounding a text. Understanding context helps readers appreciate a text's message more deeply. The document also discusses intertextuality, which examines connections between texts through similarities in themes, genres, or references to other works. Finally, it introduces the concept of hypertext, a non-linear way of presenting information online through links that allow readers to freely navigate related content.

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Ron Gruella
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644 views10 pages

RWS - 11 - Lesson 4

This document discusses the importance of understanding the context in which a text is developed and read. It defines context as the social, cultural, political, and historical circumstances surrounding a text. Understanding context helps readers appreciate a text's message more deeply. The document also discusses intertextuality, which examines connections between texts through similarities in themes, genres, or references to other works. Finally, it introduces the concept of hypertext, a non-linear way of presenting information online through links that allow readers to freely navigate related content.

Uploaded by

Ron Gruella
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Identifying the Context

of Text Development
Being a critical reader also involves understanding that texts
are always developed with a certain context. A text is neither
written nor read in a vacuum; its meaning and interpretation are
affected by a given set of circumstances.
Thus, context is defined as the social, cultural, political,
historical, and other related circumstances that surround the
text and form the terms from which it can be better
understood and evaluated. Knowledge of the text’s context
helps in appreciating the text’s message more deeply.
In discovering a reading’s context, you may ask
questions like:
 When was the work written?
 What were the circumstances that produced it?
 What issues does it deal with?
INTERTEXTUALITY
 Another significant technique in analysing the context of
a text’s development is defining its intertextual link to
another text.
 Intertextuality is the modeling of a text’s meaning by
another text. It is defined as the connections between
language, images, characters, themes, or subjects
depending on their similarities in language, genre, or
discourse.
This is seen when an author borrows and transforms a
prior text, or when you read one text and your reference
another. This view recognises that the text is always
influenced by previous texts and in turn anticipates future
texts.
A text contains many layers of accumulated cultural,
historical, and social knowledge, which continually adds to
and affects one another. Thus, intertextuality becomes a
dialogue among various texts and interpretations of the
writer, the audience, and the current and earlier cultural
contexts.
Take, for instance, the local legend of folk hero
Bernardo Carpio.
Many versions of his tale exist, but local folklore says
he is a giant who is the cause of earthquakes. In Greek
mythology, there is also Poseidon, who is the god of sea
and earthquakes.
Many cultures also attribute natural disasters to
legendary figures. This is an example of intertextuality.
Intertextuality is also seen in the story of “Tall Story” by
Candy Gourlay. This is the story of a British-Filipina teenager
who meets Bernardo, her long-lost half-brother. Bernardo
turns out to be eight feet tall and suffers from gigantism.
However, the people from his vil age believe he’s the
legendary giant who has come to save everyone from
earthquakes. The inspiration of the Bernardo Carpio myth is
clear in this story and creatively updated to make it more
appealing to modern and foreign audiences.
Meanwhile, hypertext is a relatively new way of
reading a text online. Traditionally, reading was viewed
as a linear process, where you read from the beginning
until the end. However, the advent of the internet and
technology has created new ways of reading and
processing a text, which includes hypertext.
HYPERTEXT
 Hypertext, therefore, is a non-linear way of showing
information. It connects topics on a screen to related
information, graphics, videos, and music—information is
not simply related to text.
 This information appears as links and is usually accessed
by clicking. The reader can jump to more information
about a topic, which in turn may have more links. This
opens up the reader to a wider horizon of information
or to a new direction.
A reader can skim through sections of a text, freely
jumping from one part to another depending on what
aspect of the text interests him/her.
Thus, in reading with hypertext, you are given more
flexibility and personalization because you get to select
the order in which you read the text and focus on
information that is relevant to your background and
interests. Therefore, you create your own meaning out
of the material.

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