Porter Summary

Adso of Melk puts together a puzzle using the remnants and fragments of the great libraries found in a burned abbey. This man represents us, the writers, and our writing processes; but none of these fragments are purely original. They whisper voices of other fragments and when Adso puts them together, he creates potentially new material for a discourse. Porter argues that all texts are interdependent. This theory is known as "intertextuality, the principle that all writing and speech - indeed, all signs - arise from a single network" (88). In the average English course, Porter states that the individuality and freedom of the writer are taught to the students; however, he believes that all writers are a part of a discourse community and a member of a team. This meant that the intertext "constrains writing" (88). There are two types of intertextuality: iterability and presupposition. Iterability is the repetition of specific textual pieces and the citations of every obscure thing mentioned. Presupposition is the assumptions made from a text about its audience. Porter uses Jefferson's Declaration of Independence as an example of presupposition. It is a compilation of pieces from multiple authors' books, articles, popular phrases, and famous passages. In short, Jefferson would be accused of plagiarism in today's community. Although, this does not mean that Jefferson lacked creativity. Porter defines creativity by not the invention of new sentences but the invention of new meanings. A creative writer knows how to borrow creatively, and by doing so, he becomes socialized into his or her discourse community: "a community built of groups of individuals bound by a common interest and who communicate through appropriate channels" (91). But one does not enter or contribute to the community successfully by emphasizing the individuality of the writer. In a classical view, the writer thinks about how he or she influences the audiences, but in a post-structualist view, the writer thinks about how the audience will influence his text (by expectations and standards). Although intertextuality and the rules of a discourse community may constrain the writer, the writer does have some freedoms. The writer has the freedom within immediate rhetorical context. Every text that is entered in the community could change other texts. The true struggle of the writer is not finding the individuality, but rather, it is to work in between the constrains. Porter strongly believes that "the effective writer works to assert the will against those community constraints to effect change" (96). The writer should not write in order to influence the readers or to find the inspired writing individual, but the writer should write for discourse community.