ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the age-old credit metaphor traditionally used to ascertain the value of literature in general, and fiction in particular, takes a new meaning in contemporary literary production. We witness the apparition of a fiduciary paradigm, whereby contemporary fiction simultaneously seeks credit for its polemical but heuristic recreation of reality; grants credit to the literary criticism of the “debt narrative” that shapes contemporary social and cultural relationships; and is credited with renewed political agency.
