Source: Brainstorming Strategy worksheet, English Composition II (Purdue University)
Tags: intertextuality, media analysis, brainstorming strategy, textual analysis, Katy Perry Roar, music video analysis, English Composition II, ENGL 106, rhetorical analysis, prior texts
Difficulty: Introductory | Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with close reading and rhetorical analysis.
Intertextuality is the idea that no text exists in isolation. Every piece of media, whether a song, a film, an advert or a novel, borrows from, responds to, or reworks earlier texts. In English Composition II, you are expected to identify these connections and explain how they shape meaning. This brainstorming strategy gives you a structured way to catalogue intertextual references in a media text (here, a music video) so you can build an evidence-based argument about what the text is doing and why.
When you analyse a media text, you look for how it references other texts, at different levels of directness, and using different techniques. A brainstorming table helps you log each reference, classify its level of intertextuality, name the technique used, and discuss its effect on meaning. The worked example here uses Katy Perry's "Roar" music video to show how one text can draw on film tropes, song lyrics, camera angles and cultural archetypes all at once.
Intertextuality
The relationship between texts, where one text references, borrows from, or transforms elements of another. In academic terms, it is the shaping of a text's meaning by other texts.
In simple terms, this means every song, film or article is in conversation with things that came before it.
Prior text (source text)
An earlier text that a new text draws on for background, support or contrast.
Think of it as the older work being quoted, echoed or reworked by the newer one.
Explicit intertextuality
A direct, clearly identifiable reference to another text, such as a quotation, a named title or a recognisable character.
In simple terms, the audience is meant to notice the connection straight away.
Implicit intertextuality
A subtler connection where a text echoes the language, style, conventions or cliches of other texts without naming them directly.
Think of it as borrowing the "feel" of something rather than pointing at it.
Resources of language
Repeated terms, phrases, cliches and forms of expression that circulate across many texts and become recognisable to an audience.
In simple terms, these are the stock phrases and stylistic habits a genre or community shares.
Camera angle (high angle / low angle)
In film and video analysis, the position of the camera relative to the subject. A high angle looks down on the subject (suggesting vulnerability or powerlessness). A low angle looks up (suggesting dominance or power).
Think of it as the camera telling you who holds the power in the scene.
Genre conventions
The recurring features, structures and stylistic choices audiences expect within a particular type of text (e.g. jungle-adventure imagery, empowerment anthems).
In simple terms, the "rules" a type of story or song tends to follow.
The strategy uses a four-column table to break down each intertextual moment in a media text:
Reference – The specific moment or element you are analysing (a lyric, a timestamp in a video, a visual element).
Level – How the text relates to prior texts. Levels range from explicit engagement (directly quoting or naming a source) through to vague echoing of shared language and conventions.
Technique – The method the text uses to make the connection (indirect quotation, mention of titles/authors, echoing language forms, using recognisable phrasing associated with a group or genre).
Discussion – Your interpretation of what the reference does: what meaning it creates, what effect it has on the audience, and how it supports or complicates your thesis.
Explicit social dramas of prior texts, engaged in discussion – The text directly enters a conversation with an earlier text. It quotes, paraphrases or names its source. The audience recognises a deliberate connection.
Example: "I got the eye of the tiger, the fighter" directly invokes the Survivor song "Eye of the Tiger" (theme of Rocky III), signalling readiness to face a challenge.
Prior texts that provide background, support or contrast – The text draws on earlier works to give context or to set up a comparison. It may mention titles, authors, documents or visual works.
Example: At 0:04, the "Roar" video references old jungle movies and comic-book imagery, anchoring the viewer in a familiar adventure genre.
Example: At 0:17, a character takes selfies after a plane crash, referencing a self-obsessed point of view and contrasting with the survival narrative.
Texts vaguely repeating terms, phrases, cliches or other resources of language – The text borrows familiar forms of communication without pointing to a single source. It echoes how other people or documents talk.
Example: At 0:11, high camera angles make Katy Perry's character look small, submissive and powerless, echoing visual conventions used across film to show control and vulnerability.
Texts using recognisable forms of language, phrasing and genre – The text employs terminology or imagery strongly associated with a specific group, genre or cultural reference.
Example: At 3:56, low-angle shots of Katy looking over the horizon invoke the "Queen of the Jungle" archetype, referencing Tarzan ("king of the jungle") and flipping the gendered expectation.
Camera angles are not just visual choices; they carry meaning borrowed from decades of film convention:
High angles (looking down on the subject) – Signal that a character is vulnerable, subordinate or controlled. In the "Roar" video, early high-angle shots position Katy as powerless within the relationship.
Low angles (looking up at the subject) – Signal strength, authority or triumph. Later in the video, low-angle shots recast Katy as dominant, completing her character arc.
This shift from high to low angle is itself an intertextual move: it borrows a well-established cinematic grammar that audiences read instinctively.
The source worksheet analyses the music video for "Roar" (Katy Perry, 2013). The video is set in a jungle after a plane crash and follows a narrative arc from helplessness to empowerment. Key intertextual threads include:
Rocky III / "Eye of the Tiger" – The lyric explicitly quotes the Survivor song, invoking challenge, endurance and comeback.
Jungle-adventure genre – Visual references to old jungle movies and comic books (Tarzan, Safari) anchor the setting in a recognisable genre.
Gendered power reversal – The video moves from the boyfriend as dominant (selfie-taking, self-obsessed) and Katy as submissive (high angles) to Katy as the "Queen of the Jungle" (low angles, horizon gazing), inverting the Tarzan archetype.
Film camera conventions – The shift from high to low angles tells the empowerment story visually, without dialogue.
Students often think intertextuality only means direct quotation. It does not. Echoing a visual convention, borrowing a genre's "feel" or using familiar phrasing all count as intertextual moves.
Students sometimes confuse "level" with "technique." The level describes how closely the text engages with the source (explicit vs vague). The technique describes the method used (quoting, mentioning, echoing language, using recognisable phrasing). A reference has both.
Students often treat camera angles as purely aesthetic choices. In media analysis, angles carry meaning shaped by decades of film convention, and identifying that meaning is part of reading the text's intertextual layers.
Students sometimes assume every intertextual reference is intentional on the creator's part. The analysis is about what the audience can read from the text, not solely about the creator's conscious intent.
⚠️ You will likely be asked to identify and classify intertextual references in an unseen media text. Practise filling in all four columns (reference, level, technique, discussion) for texts you have not seen before.
⚠️ The distinction between levels of intertextuality (explicit engagement vs vague echoing) is a common exam discriminator. Be precise about which level a reference sits at and explain why.
⚠️ The "discussion" column is where marks are won or lost. Naming a reference is not enough. You need to explain what meaning it creates and how it supports your argument.
⚠️ Camera angle analysis may appear in any media-text question. Know high angle = vulnerability, low angle = power, and be ready to connect the shift between them to a narrative arc.
True or false: Intertextuality only applies to written texts. (False. It applies to any media, including film, music video, visual art and advertising.)
Fill in the blank: A high camera angle makes the subject look _______, while a low camera angle makes the subject look _______. (vulnerable/powerless; dominant/powerful)
True or false: The "level" column in the brainstorming table describes the method used to make a reference. (False. The level describes how closely the text engages with the source. The method is the technique.)
Fill in the blank: The lyric "eye of the tiger" is an example of _______ intertextuality because it directly invokes a recognisable prior text. (explicit)
True or false: In the brainstorming strategy, the "discussion" column is where you explain the effect of a reference on meaning. (True.)
Q: What are the four columns of the brainstorming strategy table, and what does each one capture?
A: Reference (the specific moment or element), Level (how closely the text engages with a prior text), Technique (the method used to make the connection), and Discussion (the interpretation of what the reference means and how it supports your argument).
Q: Using the "Roar" video as an example, explain how a shift in camera angles can function as an intertextual technique.
A: Early in the video, high angles position Katy Perry as small and powerless, borrowing a film convention that signals vulnerability. Later, low angles recast her as dominant, echoing the visual grammar of empowerment. This shift draws on decades of cinematic convention to tell the empowerment story without dialogue.
Q: What is the difference between explicit intertextuality and the vague repetition of "resources of language"?
A: Explicit intertextuality involves a direct, recognisable reference to a specific prior text (e.g. quoting "eye of the tiger"). Vague repetition of resources of language involves echoing shared terms, phrases, cliches or communicative conventions without pointing to any single source (e.g. using high angles to show submission, a convention shared across many films).
Q: A music video shows a character dressed in animal skins, standing on a cliff, gazing at the horizon. Identify the likely intertextual reference and classify its level.
A: The imagery references the Tarzan archetype and jungle-adventure genre. This sits at the level of "using recognisable forms of language, phrasing and genre," because the video employs visual and narrative conventions strongly associated with a specific cultural tradition without directly quoting a single source.
This material connects directly to rhetorical analysis, where you already identify how a text persuades. Intertextuality adds another layer: the text persuades partly by invoking things the audience already knows and feels about prior texts.
It also connects to genre theory. Recognising genre conventions (jungle adventure, empowerment anthem) is a form of reading intertextuality at the level of shared cultural knowledge rather than individual quotation.
If your course covers semiotics or visual rhetoric, camera-angle analysis is a bridge between this topic and that one. The camera angle is a sign whose meaning is established by convention across many texts.
Intertextuality, prior text, source text, explicit reference, implicit reference, resources of language, genre conventions, brainstorming strategy, media text analysis, textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, camera angles, high angle, low angle, music video analysis, Katy Perry Roar, empowerment narrative, Tarzan archetype, Rocky III, Eye of the Tiger, visual rhetoric, semiotics, English Composition II, ENGL 106, Purdue University