« It wasn’t a dream, […] it was a memory » : Le fonctionnement de quelques intertextes dans Westworld

Abstract

The word « dream » is not used in its usual sense but in a specific one in the context of Westworld; such a displacement of meaning characterizes the way intertextual references function in the TV series. For hosts and viewers alike, intertextual references (notably Shakespearean ones) have their own enunciative status and aim at producing a number of effects. For the hosts, they are used as triggers to revive memories which are supposed to have been erased, and for the viewers they open a horizon of reception in which identifying intertextual sources and their possible links with Westworld becomes a central issue.

Keywords

• dream
• reminiscence
• echo
• intertextuality
• detail
• Little House on the Prairie