Palindromes and Palimpsests: Strategies of Deliberate Self-contradiction in Postmodern British Fiction

Abstract

This paper sets out to argue that contemporary British fiction, by using palinodes, palindromes and palimpsests both on the micro- and macro-structural levels, favours a logic of association of contraries which ipso facto deconstructs any monologic reflexion and conception of the world. To combine and superimpose contrary ideas means to eschew the monolithic. It also expresses the composite, heterogeneous, and yes eclectic, nature of postmodernism and its fundamental incredulity towards any singular ideology and aesthetic tradition. Ultimately, if contemporary fiction flaunts its contradictory syncretism, it is to claim the right to simultaneously and oxymoronically defend opposed tendencies, beliefs and influences.

Keywords

• Postmodernism
• Palinode
• Palimpsest
• G. Swift
• J. Barnes
• M. Amis