Recycling - A Contemporary Identity of The Past

When postmodernism decreed that art has lost originality and can only be repetitious as well as that it should change perspective from the external reality to the text, writers began focusing on previously written texts as the core subject matter of their work. From this point of view, focus is placed on recycling, seen as a postmodern technique used to construct a new identity for the past under its different forms - as history, as writers and as text(s). Thus, the past is integrated into contemporaneity while constantly being reshaped by the many contemporary novels that look back on writers, novels and literary movements belonging to the past. Moreover, this dynamic and multifaceted dialogue between contemporary novels and past ones is also considered a means of providing the latter with historical continuity (by bringing them into the attention of contemporaneity) and the former with perspectives of canonical inclusion. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.