The time of quotations: how do we communicate with quotations in contemporany culture and literature?

Abstract

[Abstract] The term ‘quotation’ is connected with the concept of ‘intertextuality’. The quotation as a segmental text is situated in a new text as a fragment from the pre-text, but at the same time the quotation must conform also the new text and new context. The quotation is a dynamic phenomenon in the context of intertextuality and poetic language. The function of quotation also depends on the context and what kinds of texts (poetic, scientific, political etc.) we use. The de-poetisation and poetisation of different texts and quotations, according to the text and context where the quotation is used, are also possible. So, the quotation would be proactive part in cultural and social production. The quotations can be explicit, implicit or pseudo-quotations in the text. Even if explicit quotation exists in the text, it would be a trick of the author because the explicit quotation may be pseudo-quotation in the literary text, and the pseudo-quotation contains an allusive signal to the pre-text. Quotation, on the surface level of the text, may convey the denotative meaning and at the same time it can also be an allusive signal to the deep structure of the text, which includes the connotative meanings created by the reader’s interpretation of the quotation. The boundary between quotation and allusion is always dynamic and variable: a quotation may transform into allusion. The paper observes how quotations function in contemporary literary texts and society.