Wikipedia
Interdiscourse is the implicit or explicit relations that a discourse has to other discourses. Interdiscursivity is the aspect of a discourse that relates it to other discourses. Norman Fairclough prefers the concept "orders of discourse". Interdiscursivity is often mostly an analytic concept, e.g. in Foucault and Fairclough. Interdiscursivity has close affinity to recontextualisation because interdiscourse often implies that elements are imported from another discourse.
The meaning of interdiscourse varies. It denotes at least three levels:
- In Courtine interdiscursivity means that a discourse has a relation to another discourse. That is, a meaning which is close to the meaning of intertextuality.
- In Norman Fairclough and Linell interdiscursive denotes relations between types of discourse such as genres.
- In Michel Foucault and Marc Angenot, interdiscursive denotes relations between discursive formations, that is, between large heterogeneous discursive entities, such as natural history and political economy during enlightenment. In Michel Foucault, interdiscourse is differences and equalities across discursive formations.
An example (where 1. corresponds to a., etc.) illustrates the three levels: A minister of environment speaks in the parliament about a proposal.
- a. She refers to other specific speeches in the parliament about the proposal.
- b. She refers to a memorandum from her civil servants.
- c. She refers to scientific reports supporting the proposal.
The example illustrates that 2. and 3. are specific cases of 1, in the sense a-c all relate to another discourse. To avoid this, level 1. might be defined as relations to other discourses within the same discursive formation and type of discourse. Consequently, the definition of the levels depends on the definition of discursive formation and types of discourse, and the three levels may collapse to the extent that these concepts are not conceived. In short, the stratification of interdiscourse depends on the stratification of discourse.