Memorious Discourse

Book excerpt: While other types of discourse cover up, gloss over, or play down what they have borrowed - and therefore owe - the postmodern eagerly acknowledges its textual and cultural debt. Moreover, it turns this indebtedness into an unexpected source of creativity and originality." "In his wide-ranging discussion of contemporary writers and theorists, Moraru notes that postmodernism characteristically re-presents. That is, it actively "remembers" and, to use a musical term, "reprises" former representations. These need not be infinite in number, as in Borges, but must be and usually are retrieved with sufficient obviousness."--Jacket.