Poetry as Hypertext: Milton, Eliot, and the Possibilities of Intertextuality Today

Abstract

The Internet and technologies have revolutionized the experience of reading and understanding literature. Since the audiences of literary works have changed, a change in the creation of literature seems inevitable. Because the writer should have their audience in mind at the moment of literary creation, they now have to change their perception of that audience. Literature can now integrate a much greater element of intertextuality, so much so that the authors do not need to worry whether their references can be recognized. John Milton’s Paradise Lost and T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land are instances of highly allusive works in two very different eras. Due to this allusiveness, these two works serve as suitable instances to show how audiences and their abilities have changed over time. For the two poems, the choice of sources and their audiences’ ability to understand the allusions differ markedly. A shared center for referencing was lost at the time of Eliot, which made him abstruse. This center is being restored as the accessibility of the Internet and technologies rises. The audiences of literary works have powerful tools at their disposal to help them understand those works. Thus, a development in literary creation can be proposed: the writer can implement more intertextuality as the audiences’ ability grows to meet it.