Title: Au lecteur: The Use of Intertextuality in T.S. Eliot's "The Burial of the Dead"

Introduction:

The word "criticism" often carries a negative connotation in the English language, such as "a finding fault" ("Criticism" 149). While some critics find faults in the works that they analyze, literary criticism concerns itself more with interpreting, deciphering, and asking thought-provoking questions about a piece of literature. The collected and often continuing criticism creates what literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin calls "dialogism" or "intertextuality," the latter of which was Julia Kristeva's understanding of Bakhtin's theory. Both terms suggests that every utterance is related to others; therefore, in terms of literary criticism, one critic's writings about a work may directly respond to the ideas of critics who wrote before him or her.

Thesis statement:

By applying Bakthin's ideas to literature, one can argue that T.S. Eliot's "The Burial of the Dead" (from "The Waste Land") has elements that align the work with both poetry and fiction; however, it still provides instances of intertextuality that one can find in all forms of literary writing.

Commentary:

This thesis statement takes a generalized concept about criticism and applies it to a specific idea found in the thesis statement. It outlines the structure of the rest of the paper, and clearly states the focus and topic of the essay.