Memorious Discourse: Reprise And Representation In Postmodernism

This book zeroes in on postmodern representation, which the author defines (with a wink at Borges's "Funes the Memorious") as "memorious discourse." This wide-ranging discussion of contemporary writers and theorists from Nabokov and Delillo to Levinas and Derrida argues that postmodern representation "remembers" and recyles former representations, and draws a picture that latches onto other pictures to bring its object to life. Memorious Discourse identifies five areas in recent theory and fiction where the problems of postmodern representation come to light forcefully: the postmodern memoir and "personal" literature broadly, the use of names, the "posthuman," the issue of "reality" and the complex bearings of postmodern ontology, and the sublime's "revival."