Theory transforms quoted fragments into autonomous unities by wrapping texts in other texts.

Evidence

It becomes ever clearer that in whatever criticism or explication de texte, but far more visibly in the more idiosyncratic practices of contemporary theory, one text is simply being wrapped in another, with the paradoxical effect that the first — a mere writing sample, a paragraph or illustrative sentence, a segment or moment torn out of its context — becomes affirmed as autonomous and as a kind of unity in its own right, like the devouring lions on Malraux’s earrings. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 268

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the strategy of the wrapper and the wrapped, a key mechanism of postmodern theoretical practice.