A term variously attributed to French critics Julia Kristeva and Mikhail Bakhtin, used widely by critics in the last twenty years to refer to the presence of aspects of one or more texts within some other work. The idea of intertextuality suggests, in fact, that every piece of written work in some way is related to other texts that already have been written. Types of intertextuality include overt literary allusion, actual quotation from other works, and even plagiarism and parody. See Boom, El. In literature, an implied or indirect reference to a person, event, thing, or a part of another text.
Allusion is distinguished from such devices as direct quote and imitation or parody.
Most are based on the assumption that there is a body of knowledge that is shared by the author and the reader and that therefore the reader will understand the author's referent. Allusions to biblical figures and figures from classical mythology are common in Western literature for this reason. The Cuban novelist was searching for a concept broad enough to accommodate both the events of everyday life and the fabulous nature of Latin American geography and history. Coined by Alfred Hitchcock. Fictional Latin-American city in One Hundred Years of Solitude .