Deconstruct or Reconstruct the Canon. Intertextual and Hypertextual Mechanisms in Feminist Rewritings

Abstract

This article seeks to display and typify different forms in which feminist rewritings may perform against the patriarchal canon, offering a theoretical perspective derived from intertextuality and hypertextuality. These two concepts will be reconstructed by subdividing them into two complementary mechanisms. Each of them operates according to a deconstructive or reconstructive purpose, depending on whether the revision of previous models or the genesis of novel discursive practices prevails. Intertextuality will be understood as punctual and extensive relations, making a distinction between explicit (transductions) and implicit (transpositions) transformations. Hypertextuality, as intensive relations that generate a structural retro-affectation in the hypotext, distinguishing between weak/retrospective (oppositions) and strong/retroactive (synthesis). The methodology and concepts proposed will be applied upon certain feminist texts, including deconstructive revisions of Neruda’s verses and rewritings of Dulcinea and Little Red Riding Hood.