'You don't wait for inspiration': Plagiarism, imitation and re-enactment in the novels by Arnon Grunberg 'Op inspiratie wacht je niet': Plagiaat, imitatie en 're-enactment' in de romans van Arnon Grunberg

The work of the succesful Dutch author Arnon Grunberg seems to be intertextual in a postmodern way: he recycles, quotes and refers to existing stories and novels. However, the functions of this intertextuality are different in Grunberg's oeuvre than they were in postmodernism. Here I try to give a more adequate description and interpretation of intertextuality in his novels. We may speak of imitation (Mary Orr) or parody (Linda Hutcheon): biblical stories for example are rewritten by Grunberg, with an emphasis on difference. The aim is not to undermine the source-text, but rather to place the new text in a context of universal stories about humanity. And in the case of the 'culture-text' of the Holocaust, parody and 're-enactment' (Ernst van Alphen) seem to be ways to come to terms with the past.