By Hilda Broqvist
This article introduces the concept of intertextuality to the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), offering a new way to analyse how policy narratives draw on and reuse earlier stories. It argues that, while NPF research has paid close attention to how evidence is used strategically in policy debates, it has largely overlooked the fact that some forms of “evidence” are themselves narratives, complete with their own characters, plots and policy messages.
The article starts from a simple but important observation: policy actors rarely construct narratives in a vacuum. Instead, they operate in discursive environments already populated by influential texts — such as national strategies, international conventions, or previous policy programmes — that shape how new stories are told. Drawing on theories of intertextuality from discourse analysis, Broqvist proposes that NPF scholars need better tools to study how these pre-existing narratives are actively incorporated into new policy narratives.
The core theoretical contribution is the introduction of intertextual references as a new analytical category within the NPF codebook. These are defined as explicit references to external narrative texts, which can take different forms: direct quotations, reported or paraphrased content, formal citations, or simple naming of a policy document. Importantly, most of these forms do not just acknowledge another text, but transport narrative elements — such as victims, villains, heroes or policy solutions — into the new narrative.
Empirically, the article applies this approach to a qualitative study of Swedish municipal policy documents on men’s violence against women. The case is well suited to this purpose, as local policy making in this area takes place in a dense narrative landscape shaped by national strategies, international human rights instruments, and long-standing gender equality discourses. Analysing 80 municipal documents, Broqvist finds that the vast majority contain intertextual references to earlier policy narratives, particularly the Swedish National Strategy and key international conventions.
The analysis identifies four main ways in which intertextual references are used. First, they can situate a new narrative by positioning it within a broader policy framework without adopting its storyline in detail. Second, they can echo past narratives by reproducing their core characters and problem definitions. Third, they can build on earlier narratives by selectively reworking specific elements, such as adding new actors or combining different policy framings. Finally, they can counter past narratives, especially by challenging how victims and perpetrators are defined.
Taken together, the findings suggest that intertextuality plays a central role in how policy narratives gain authority, coherence and legitimacy. Rather than treating policy documents or testimonies simply as forms of evidence, the article shows that they function as narrative resources that shape how problems and solutions are understood over time. For NPF research, this means that studying the “flow” of narratives across texts is crucial for understanding how policy meanings are stabilised, adapted or contested within complex policy processes.
You can read the original research in Policy & Politics at
Broqvist, H. (2026). Stories told before: intertextuality in policy narratives on men’s violence against women. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2026) from https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2026D000000085
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