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‘Damn mad’

Palindromic figurations in literary narratives
  • Christina Ljungberg

Abstract

Palindromes are chiastic figurations that arrest the habitual tempo-linear sequence of language and, in so doing, focus attention on the very act of signification. In narrative, they often prove pivotal for the overall structure of the text, going far beyond mere wordplay or verbal virtuosity. Because they can be read both backwards and forwards, palindromes emerge as multilayered, multidirectional, and polytemporal mappings reflecting the notorious instability of human lives, where the ever shifting present oscillates between the past and the future. In contemporary fiction, such palindromic vacillation becomes an iconic representation of temporal shifting, allowing us to discern the texture of temporality, not as abstractly conceived but as concretely lived and hence as innovatively performing an unstable present.

Abstract

Palindromes are chiastic figurations that arrest the habitual tempo-linear sequence of language and, in so doing, focus attention on the very act of signification. In narrative, they often prove pivotal for the overall structure of the text, going far beyond mere wordplay or verbal virtuosity. Because they can be read both backwards and forwards, palindromes emerge as multilayered, multidirectional, and polytemporal mappings reflecting the notorious instability of human lives, where the ever shifting present oscillates between the past and the future. In contemporary fiction, such palindromic vacillation becomes an iconic representation of temporal shifting, allowing us to discern the texture of temporality, not as abstractly conceived but as concretely lived and hence as innovatively performing an unstable present.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of Contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Insistent Images 1
  6. PART I. Iconicity and grammaticalization
  7. Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test 17
  8. Iconic thumbs, pinkies and pointers 37
  9. PART II. Iconicity and the aural
  10. The physical basis for phonological iconicity 57
  11. Reading aloud and Charles Dickens’ aural iconic prose style 73
  12. Iconicity and the divine in the fin de siècle poetry of W.B. Yeats 91
  13. Is lámatyáve a linguistic heresy? 103
  14. PART III. Iconicity and the visual
  15. The beauty of life and the variety of signs 113
  16. Forms of restricted iconicity in modern avant-garde poetry 129
  17. Eco-Iconicity in the poetry and poem-groups of E.E. Cummings 155
  18. The language of film is a matrix of icons 173
  19. Liberature 191
  20. PART IV. Iconicity and conceptualization
  21. Meaning on the one and on the other hand 211
  22. Iconic text strategies 229
  23. ‘Damn mad’ 247
  24. PART V. Iconicity and structure
  25. Iconicity and the grammar–lexis interface 269
  26. Iconicity in the coding of pragmatic functions 289
  27. Double negation and iconicity 301
  28. PART VI. Iconicity and multimedia / intertextuality
  29. Iconicity in multimedia performance 323
  30. Author index 347
  31. Subject index 353
Insistent Images
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Insistent Images
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.5.21lju

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of Contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Insistent Images 1
  6. PART I. Iconicity and grammaticalization
  7. Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test 17
  8. Iconic thumbs, pinkies and pointers 37
  9. PART II. Iconicity and the aural
  10. The physical basis for phonological iconicity 57
  11. Reading aloud and Charles Dickens’ aural iconic prose style 73
  12. Iconicity and the divine in the fin de siècle poetry of W.B. Yeats 91
  13. Is lámatyáve a linguistic heresy? 103
  14. PART III. Iconicity and the visual
  15. The beauty of life and the variety of signs 113
  16. Forms of restricted iconicity in modern avant-garde poetry 129
  17. Eco-Iconicity in the poetry and poem-groups of E.E. Cummings 155
  18. The language of film is a matrix of icons 173
  19. Liberature 191
  20. PART IV. Iconicity and conceptualization
  21. Meaning on the one and on the other hand 211
  22. Iconic text strategies 229
  23. ‘Damn mad’ 247
  24. PART V. Iconicity and structure
  25. Iconicity and the grammar–lexis interface 269
  26. Iconicity in the coding of pragmatic functions 289
  27. Double negation and iconicity 301
  28. PART VI. Iconicity and multimedia / intertextuality
  29. Iconicity in multimedia performance 323
  30. Author index 347
  31. Subject index 353
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© 2026 De Gruyter Brill
Heruntergeladen am 16.3.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/ill.5.21lju/html
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