`And its all there` - Intertextual Structures

Diploma Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, Martin Luther University (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: With the growth in popularity due to series like Anne Rices The Vampire Chronicles and the motifs recurring presence in cinematic adaptations of Stokers Dracula as well as various TV formats public interest has never ceased to the present day. As the most significant characteristic of the vampire is its being multi-faceted and changing, its potential to be also of great intertextual value can be thereupon considered. Consequently, it can be assumed that Meyers tetralogy clearly evokes these instances of intertextuality through the adoption of patterns and themes that have already proved productive in earlier literary works. However, in Meyers work these sources are remarkably extended and sometimes even altered as she relies to a large part on her pretexts to tell her narrative and construct a postmodern vampire figure. In order to achieve a comprehensive analysis it is necessary to incorporate all four volumes - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn - of the Twilight series in the discussion. Meyers just recently published work The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella will only engage a marginal part of the analysis as it largely concentrates on the subplot of Eclipse, hence not being particularly significant for the main events of the story. On the other hand, Meyers Midnight Sun, although until the present day a yet unfinished and unpublished manuscript, is of great importance for the subsequent analysis. Meyer dwells on a number of themes, structures, and characters that have intertextual potential. One can distinguish between pretexts that are apparently marked in Meyers work and sources that only bear non-literal intertextual references. Pretexts that are overtly marked and are thus explicitly intertextual in the Twi