The Genre of Trolls - Doria

certain nuances to the picture of the workings of this absorption of genres,
emphasizing both the cultural and individual aspects of this process. The
intersubjective, dialogical encounter as an arena for further intertextualization
of subjects and for the production of knowledge and interpretations is
described as the ground for agency (Blaakilde 1998: 109), since dialogue
cannot be passive; if it is, it degenerates into monologue (cf. Emerson
2000: 229). Therefore it demands some degree of agency to continue.
All scholars presented here have their own conceptions of the subject
and subjectivity, but a number of common features may be discerned. All
seem to agree on the produced and processual nature of the subject, which
is constantly being reassessed and remoulded. Furthermore, subjectivity is
characterized as a relational position, articulated in relation to other people,
objects or phenomena. Subjectivity also creates the point of view from
which the individual observes the world; this is especially prominent in
Barthes’s analysis, where the constitution of the perspective of the author,
Balzac, is determined by the intertextual codes generating his subjectivity
(cf. Björklund 1993: 242; Lövkrona 1996: 160–166).
To summarize my own position vis-à-vis this research history, I will be applying
Julia Kristeva’s conception of texts as mosaics of quotations, and be
utilizing Lotte Tarkka’s notion of metaphor and metonymy to describe the
relationship between texts linked in this fashion. I will also adopt Norman
Fairclough’s concept of interdiscursivity to delineate the relationships between
texts on the level of discourse, and use Mikhail Bakhtin’s, and
Charles Briggs and Richard Bauman’s insights into the workings of genre
in order to examine the effects of generic framing on narrative. The previous
study most in tune with my own is that of Ulrika Wolf-Knuts who
explores the relation between folklore and Biblical stories as well, but my
work will serve to elaborate the implications of that relationship and provide
other theoretical tools for investigating them. The rest of the research
literature has also been important for the development of my understanding
of intertextuality and of how it functions.
Intertextuality in the History of Research 41
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