Epigonic

A sample of Liapunov's epigonic style may be quoted from the second theme (cited above) as it undergoes polyphonic extensions in the first development section (Ex. 122).

I want to show that Stifter's novel is not only important for Nietzsche's aesthetics, but it is itself concerned with developing a strategy of epigonic writing. Stifter's own commentary implies that the attempt to distance oneself from epigonality, to overcome it—as was the case with Immerman—collapses the novel, and he arrives at a conscious affirmation of epigonic methods.