Citation and Modernity

This is a study of the phenomenon of quotation, about which very little has been written in English. Until the end of the 19th century, or at least until Flaubert, most writers relied on the traditional definition of quotation derived from classical rhetoric, employing citations as ornaments or illustrations. Claudette Sartiliot argues that for modernist and postmodernist writers quotation represents a definite break with the tradition as well as a means of questioning the nature of the literary text. Using many specific examples from Jacques Derrida's "Glas", Joyce's "Finnegans Wake", and several works by Bertolt Brecht, Sartiliot demonstrates different aspects of quotation in modernist and postmodernist literature. In essence, citation in these texts acts as an indeterminate point of contact between the author's discourse and traditional discourses. Sartiliot's approach allows her to discuss a wide range of interrelated issues surrounding modernist or postmodernist texts, as well as to explore the consequences of the break with classical quotation in three different genres: philosophy, fiction and the theatre.