Intertextuality: Infectious Echoes from the Past.

Abstract

JR. Tolkien claimed that there no new stories, only a of sto # ries into which we dip as we write, (Cooper, 1988, p. 7), and would add, read. Tolkien is certainly not the first person to ob serve that writing occurs against a backdrop of one's prior literary experiences. Most read ers, if probed, will confess that they fre quently think of other books as they read. Similarly, writers, if they honest, will ad mit that the germs of their writing can often be traced to previous literary experiences with texts written, read, and heard. Mahy (1987), expressed this point well when reflecting upon her childhood literary experiences: I wrote because was a reader, and wanted to relive certain reading experi ences more intimately by bringing them back out of myself (p. 151). Mahy further suggests that other books are the very infections she is hoping for as she reads: Books give access to a continu ous and reciprocating discussion...I think dissolved the books needed and no doubt still carry them (in solution) within me (p. 157). The purpose of this article is to examine children's awareness of the influence of this cauldron of stories by discussing part of the data from a 2-year study in which investi gated the question, How is the reading and writing of children aged 6-12 years affected by previous textual experiences? The project has three main stages and is still in progress. In this article, concerned with the first stage, report the responses of Grade 6 children who were asked in individual interviews whether

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