To conclude, I believe that the Shrek franchise has been an excellent example of Intertextuality and Textual Poaching, as it has abundant examples of these concepts taking place. Through undertaking this analysis, I think there’s is a clear connection between these two concepts. Intertextuality in itself is an example of textual poaching, and it can be argued that the use of Intertextuality encourages textual poaching to take place. In my research I found that Intertextuality has been used in Shrek for a number of reasons, such as expanding the potential audience for the films, and creating a sense of familiarity. The use of this concept has worked very well and I believe it’s a big reason for the franchises success.
Shrek supports Kristeva’s (1986) argument that “any text is the absorption and transformation of another” as it has done exactly that through the use of references to classic fairytales and films. It also supports Barthes (1977) theory that “A text is made up of multiple writings”, as it is clear that Shrek uses a number of different characters and references to scenes from previous ‘writings’.
One of my main findings whilst analysing this franchise was just how big the fandom is. There is a huge amount of textual poaching that takes place and there is a big audience for it, which is shown by the fan produced video which has received over 100 million views. This fandom supports Jenkins (1992) idea that textual poaching allows fans to “become active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings”. This is because they are able to ‘construct’ new textual meanings through meme culture and other fan created content, and then they are able to ‘circulate’ it through social media and websites like ‘ShrekChan’. It is also evident that the emergence of modern digital technologies has empowered fans and has allowed them to become, as Jenkins (1992) said, ‘active readers’.
Thankyou for reading! i hope you enjoyed this essay. Please feel free to leave a comment as i am interested to hear your feedback.
The Shrek Franchise: Intertextuality and Textual Poaching 