The Function of Intertextuality in Animation Based on Gerard Genette’s Theory A Case Study of Rick and Morty Serial Animation

In recent years, Intertextuality has become widely used as an approach to critique and comparative studies of artistic works and movies alike. Gerard Genette’s Intertextuality Theory, as a subject of the Transtextuality, aims to survey the relationship between each text (piece of art) and its reflection in other relevant texts (other art works) towards reading this relationship. This research seeks to answer the question of how to interact and read artworks (including animation) through an intertextual approach. To this end, collecting documentary information and descriptive and analytical methods have been employed. To answer the research question, first the theory of intertextuality and differences between the first and the second generations were explored. The animation readings framework was proposed with respect to Morty Serial Animation structural components of an animation in the following. In accordance with this reading pattern, various components of several selected episodes of Rick and Morty Serial Animation were examined as a case study. Various dimensions of this animation were studied considering the pretext and factors of social, political, and cultural externalities. The results of the review of Rick and Morty ‘s animation suggest the existence of strong inter-intentions between this work and its predecessors (previous films such as X-Man, Wicker Man, Iron Man, Jurassic Park, etc.). The results also indicate that the author of this animation has been able to create a Paratext, Hypertext and Metatext linkage by means of combining multiple pretexts.