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Literature vocabulary · Core Concepts

Textuality

Meaning in literature, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In literature, textuality means: The quality of being a text, including the features and relations that make language function as a meaningful written whole.

In Turkish: metinsellik

How it is used

Used in literary theory, discourse analysis, and criticism to discuss how meaning is produced through structure, language, reference, and reading practices.

Example sentences

  1. The article links textuality to citation patterns, arguing that the novel's fragments still cohere through repeated legal and biblical phrases.

    In this example, textuality refers to the textual features that create coherence even when the work looks broken or discontinuous.

  2. Our reading group discussed how the poem's visual layout contributes to its textuality, not just its spoken rhythm or imagery.

    Here, the term includes page arrangement as part of how the poem operates as a meaningful text.

Common collocations

  • textuality of the novel
  • textuality and meaning
  • conditions of textuality
  • literatureWritten works, such as novels, poems and plays, that are valued for their artistic quality and the way they use language, and the study of these works.
  • narrativeA story or account of connected events, and the way it is told; also used as an adjective for anything that tells a story.

More terms: Core Concepts

Practise with graded reading

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