Much of the work tends to dwell on those hackneyed themes of tradition and nostalgia; souvenirs that please the eye, but don't really offer a radically different perspective.

Titled "Territories," it press-gangs into service the efforts of a bunch of emerging artists around the somewhat hackneyed theme of mapping.

Maia hardly paid attention to the libretto, however, which followed a hackneyed theme about the ancient struggle between womanly pragmatism and the spasmodic, dangerous enthusiasms of old-fashioned males.

It dwells on the limitations of the traditional ghazal, and points to what he considered the hollowness of its hackneyed themes and imagery, especially when the form is handled by other poets and versifiers.

But every story I print on a hackneyed theme is definitely different; this definitely is not the usual Arthur story.

They are almost hackneyed themes.

An old and hackneyed theme, but Leinster redeemed it with a climax in which the hero uses his knowledge of the hijacked ship's communications system to drive the pirates insane.

And though the reigning cliche of Watergate has become the hackneyed theme of the Reagan White House, no apology or simulated surge of Presidential activity can "put this thing behind him."

But America's love-hate relationship with its own conspicuous consumption is a hackneyed theme.

And yet Ms. Cho, a young playwright of clear promise, develops even the potentially hackneyed themes with a laconic, natural ease that earns respect and admiration.