Once upon an Intertextual world

In literature, or at least the more modern forms of  literature there seems to either be,
A.) Some crazy " out of this world"  concept that you nor your uncles barber has ever heard of
B.) A simple story, has some relationships to other novels you've read before, but still has it's own little quirks, or...
C.) Okay, this author literally just took Romeo and Juliet and renamed the characters to Jomeo and Ruliet!!!
Believe it or not, but B and C are actually very common in the world of Lit.. Whether you realize it or not, or if you've just realized it now, the novel that you may or may not be reading right now, may or may not be influenced by another author's work. This phenomena is called "Intertextuality", which is the relationship between one story and another. Thomas C. Foster begins a short  5 chapter series in his  " How to Read Literature Like a Professor", that outlines the intertextuality and the main sources novels usually borrow from.
 Beginning in Chapter 5, "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?", Foster reveals a secret that could ultimately increase the reader's novel experience all together. One that opens the gigantic heavy doors in our brain's frontal lobes. One that could even bring world peace! Okay, maybe not that great of a secret, but it's pretty darn great. According to Foster," there's no such thing as a wholly original work of literature." One story could have themes, elements, and/or characters borrowed from Fitzgerald to Nabokov. Why is this such a great secret?  Well, with this new knowledge, you, the reader, will discover a brand new way to enjoy your novel, not only will you be more engaged, but you will find yourself understanding and appreciating the story more and more. In fact, you might be able to catch the similarities early on, and predict how the story might carry on.
   Create a " Now Where Have I Seen Her Before?" game. You can set your own rules, but the main objective of the game is to find the connections to other novels. Look at the characters; who do they remind you of? What about the timeline of the story? Does it follow the same themes of, say, Shakespeare's Hamlet, or Sophocles' Oedipus Rex? Try to find these things, and I promise, once you discover these recurrences, it will deepen your understanding and enjoyment of all novels... Or, at least make it more bearable.

Let's get down to the specifics; What do the authors usually pull from.

While I can't give you anything fully accurate or specific, Foster sums it up clearly in the chapter titles, giving you options of where to look;" When is Doubt, it's from Shakespeare..." "...Or the Bible" or maybe " Hanseldee and Greteldum". hmm never mind " It's Greek to Me"!
You can read a well known novel like Herman Melville's Moby Dick and see both influences from Shakespeare's King Lear, Macbeth and from the Bible or if you've read Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen
Oyeyemi you would notice the fairytale inspiration. Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon? Greek mythology. But, what if you haven't read that many novels to draw comparisons from? Don't worry! Foster says,  " the worst thing that occurs is that we're still reading the same story as if the literary precursors weren't there."  So, no need to go binge read all the classic tales  before you proceed to read any thing else. you can simply just let the book unfold before you and enjoy it as is... Or you can binge read every classic novel written in the history of the earth. if so, udachi!!

http://ewubd.edu/~sonia/Melville%20paper.pdf