Author(s)

Mengyuan Ding ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ College of Foreign Studies, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, China

Corresponding Author

Mengyuan Ding

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the intertextuality in AT451 type folktales, "The Sister Who Sought Her Brothers," from different regions through a cross-cultural lens. By analyzing stories such as "The Twelve Wild Ducks," the paper explores the intertextual manifestations in folk literature at both discourse and cultural levels and their implications for cross-cultural communication. The study finds that intertextuality in these stories is primarily reflected in two dimensions: the discourse level, including literary allusions, clichés, and intertextuality in genre, theme, and structure; and the cultural level, involving material, institutional, and mental culture. These intertextual elements not only enrich the content of the stories but also facilitate communication among different cultural groups. This research aims to provide a new perspective for understanding the role of folktales in cross-cultural communication and to discuss future directions, including expanding the corpus of texts and further exploring the relationship between intertextuality at the discourse and cultural levels.

KEYWORDS

Intertextuality; Cultural Levels; AT451 Type Tales; Folk Literature

CITE THIS PAPER

Mengyuan Ding, A Preliminary Analysis of the Discourse and Cultural Levels of Folk Literature from the Perspective of "Intertextuality"—Taking AT451 Type Folktales as an Example. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2025) Vol. 8: 136-145. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2025.080220.

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