What is the difference between context and intertext?

Understanding Context and Intertextuality

When we read a story, poem, or even a tweet, we’re not just processing words—we’re navigating layers of meaning shaped by more than just the text itself. A text, in literary and cultural studies, isn’t limited to books. It can be any verbal or symbolic record: a film, a speech, an advertisement. But the meaning of that text doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

This is where context comes in. Context includes everything surrounding the text—historical background, cultural norms, the author’s intent, the reader’s perspective, and even the time and place it’s encountered. For instance, reading George Orwell’s 1984 during a political crisis carries a different weight than reading it in peacetime. The words are the same, but the context changes how we interpret them.

But texts don’t just respond to their surroundings—they also speak to each other. That’s where intertextuality takes over. Coined by Julia Kristeva, the term describes how texts borrow, echo, or react to other texts. When a modern novel references Homer’s Odyssey, or when a film mimics Shakespearean dialogue, it’s not accidental. These references enrich meaning, creating a conversation across time and culture. A superhero movie might draw from ancient myth, reworking archetypes for a new generation. That dialogue between texts is intertextuality at work.

So while context shapes how we understand a text in its moment, intertextuality reveals how texts live across time—quoting, parodying, or challenging one another. Both are essential for deeper reading. One grounds the text in the real world; the other connects it to a broader literary and cultural conversation.