Textuality assumptions and the analysis of literary texts

This article analyses genre-specific methods of textual analysis that are considered to be elementary and 'close' to the surface level of literary texts. It focuses on two questions: How do these methods explicitly and implicitly make use of the concept of textuality? And what kind of knowledge do they presuppose? A linguistic model of textuality is taken as the frame of this analysis. The article argues for the utilization of linguistic concepts in literary studies, both in theory and practice. At the same time it is assumed that historical and genre-oriented studies of literary texts focussing on the prerequisites of textuality will contribute to a differentiated view of a prototypical concept of textuality.