Fostering and Building Students' Intertextual Histories.

Reading occurs against a backdrop of one's prior literary experiences. Most readers if probed will indicate that they frequently think of other books as they read. Similarly, many writers freely admit that the germs of their writing can often be traced to previous literary experiences with written and read (Cairney, 1990a; 1990b). This process of interpreting one text by means of a previously composed text has been labelled (Barthes, 1979; de Beaugrande, 1980; Kristeva, 1980). The term intertextuality is in a sense a metaphor used for the constant construction and reconstruction of meaning, as readers and writers transpose into other texts, absorb one text into another, and build a mosaic of intersecting texts (Hartman, 1990, p.2). Margaret Mahy (1987) is well aware of her intertextual history. When reflecting upon her childhood literary experiences, she commented: