War with the Newts

Intertextuality is a narrative strategy that intentionally draws upon other texts—including fiction, historical events, and cultural phenomena—to create meaning. Authors anticipate that readers will recognize references to texts beyond the physical bounds of the text in their hands. Intertextuality is accomplished through parody, allusion, quotation, or other modes of reference. It is often a characteristic of postmodern literature, which is often cited as a literary movement of the post-World War II era but with origins that are evident in literature as early as the turn of the 20th century. Karel Čapek’s novel War with the Newts is an early example of intertextuality that would inspire writers later in the 20th century.

Čapek draws upon, and parodies, several different genres in War with the Newts. Captain van Toch and his interactions with the newts resemble the elements of adventure novels, such as those written by Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne. The captain himself denies being an adventurer but, after his death, Bondy refers to the captain’s story as “the adventurous story of the pearls” (150). Bondy, then, shifts the narrative into the utopian