Feminism in A.S Byatt —The analysis ofthe women character in Possession

1、Feminism in A.S Byatt The analysis of  the women character in PossessionAbstractByatt, is one of the influencial British contemporary novelist. since her novel possessions publication, it has aroused a stir in English world, and at the same

2、 time received the highest prize of British literature, ie.Booker Prize. Possession belongs to the neo-victorian novel. In this novel, Byatt creatively reproduces the true life of female intellectuals living in the Victorian Age and revives the distorted images of the female by the traditional male-

3、dominated culture.Through the letters,dairies and poems by the Victorian females, Byatt tries to reveal the truth of existential and the psychological status of those females marginalized by the patriarchal society,deconstruct and subvert the male-centered narrative discourse in the traditional text

4、 and put forword her feminists view that females will move from margin to center in future society. This paper thought the usage of character analysis method, aims to better control Byatts feminism thought.Key words: Possession; Feminism; mirror characters; female characters拜尔特的女性主义思想-对占有的女性人物的分析中文摘

5、要拜尔特是当今英国最有影响力的女作家之一，自她的小说占有出版后，便在英国世界引起了一阵轰动，而且还获得了英国文学的最高奖-布克文学奖。该小说属于维多利亚时期的小说。小说中，拜尔特创造性地再现了维多利亚时期的女知识性分子的真实生活，并唤醒了长期受男权文化控制而曲解的女性意识。通过维多利亚时期女性的信件、日记以及诗歌，拜尔特尝试揭示存在的真理和处于男权社会边缘的女性心理状态，并结构和颠覆了传统叙事中以男性为中心的观点，并提出了她女性主义的观点，即，在未来的社会中，女性将会从边缘社会走向中心。本文通过采用人物分析法对主要人物进行分析，旨在令读者们更好地掌握拜尔特的女性主义思想。关键词：占有； 女性主

6、义； 镜像任务；女性角色ContentAbstract in English.1Abstract in Chinese21.Introduction31.1 A brief introduction of the Possession and the Feminism41.2 The Research Objectives and the Framework of the Thesis52. Unfolding Feminism from the Artistic Techniques Employed by A.S. Byatt in Possession62.1 The Symbols i

7、n Possession to Present Feminism Thoughts.72.2 The Unique Narrative Stragegy and Feminism.82.1.1. Discovery of Suspenseful Letters.82.2.2. Content of Correspondences and Journals.92.2.3. Usage of Poems and Mythologies.93.The analysis of  the women character in 

8、;Possession.103.1 Lammot.103.2 Maud.113.3 Val.113.4 Alan123.5 summary of the analysis.124. conclusion.13Bibliography.14Acknowledgement15Chapter one Introduction1.1 A brief introduction of Byatts Possession and the Feminism A. S. Byatt is internationally acclaimed as a novelist, short story writer an

9、d critic.she is one of the most imaginative and intelligent contemporary British writers who enjoys a growing international reputation. Her novels are imbued with a rich heritage of realism and conspicuous traits of postmodernism, which have attracted worldwide academic attention. Byatt has focused

10、her concern on a female creative identity, around this theme a range of female artists are built in her novels. Conspicuously, adoption or adaptation of traditional myths and fairy tales for characterization highly features in her fiction. Byatt Educated at York and Newnham College, Cambridge, she t

11、aught Art and Design at the Central School, and was Senior lecturer in English at University College, London, before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999. Her novels are imbued with a rich heritage of realism and conspicuous traits of postmodernism, whic

12、h have attracted worldwide academic attention. Byatt has focused her concern on a female creative identity, around this theme a range of female artists are built in her novels. Conspicuously, adoption or adaptation of traditional myths and fairy tales for characterization highly features in her fict

13、ion.Possession, winner of the Booker Prize for Fiction which is the highest British litereray prize in Britain, locates A.S. Byatt in a sublime position in contemporary worlds literature. In this book, the talent-endowed writer manages to integrate the traditional literature with modern literature s

14、o that this great materpiece can reach a triumphant success on every level the critique of 19th Victorian poetry, an unbearably moving story, and a satire on the modern Biography Industry Cosmopolitan. Of all these important elements, the story also contains the distinctively diferent feminism thoug

15、hts of A.S. Byatt on the male- female relationship in deferent societies.The story tells us how the two academic researchers, Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey, discovery a secret romance between two Victoria poets, and during their unearthing the fact, their own love story also parrallels that of the

16、 two poets, who are subjects of their research, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabcl LaMotte. Apart from them, there are also the deconstructionist academic Mortimer Cropper，the British Professor James Blackadder,and Professor Leonora Stern, who study the works of Ash and LaMotte respectively and also

17、harbour different purposes in unfolding the Ash-LaMotte relationship. Through these conflicts, the author covers a reader a intense suspense all over the story. The story does not play on the readers heartstring until it ends well.Possession is a diplonema structure novel, it respectively tells two

18、romantic love story in the 20 th century and the middle of the nineteenth century ,shapes two groups of both spirit likeness and different image mirror characters. Through the voice of the characters, especially through the narrative of the love story between Ashy Lamote ,The author tries to tell pe

19、ople that women should be independent and self-esteem. Even though she admitted that, in a way, love can stimulate womens wit, but she insists that women should seperate sex from career , love, marriage and children just the barriers to their success. Near the end, the author expressed her inner voi

20、ce borrowing the mouth of Moude : “ oh, love is terrible, is a destroyer”. through the characterizations of different women in different two centuries, and through the fictional Lamote myth in the story, the author highlights the improvement of the modern womens social status and individual rights.

21、Focusing on the feminist tone. and analysing the female characters ,the novel can help us better understand Byatts feminist ideas. Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical discourse, it aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's

22、 social roles and lived experience, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and sociology, psychoanalysis, economics, literary criticism, and philosophy. Here the author wants to introduce the development of the feminism first.Feminist , as the theme of the literary creati

23、on, is mostly implicated in the women writers works. it aims to attack the man-dominated concept and the practical truth. After the second world war, European and American literary creation were more advocating women writers to show womens survival circumstance and mental consciousness from womens s

24、pecial position and the female peculiar sharpness and subtlety. Although which is not as strong as American feminist literary movement, English literature has also emerged a large number of feminist ideas of outstanding female writer. Contemporary writer A.S Byatt, with her booker prize (1990) the b

25、est novel the possession and other several autobiography novels have won a space for them in this field.Generally speaking, the feminism experienced two big stages.ie.Traditional Feminist Theories and New Feminist Theories. Among which, traditional feminism includes Liberal Feminism ,Radical Feminis

26、m , and Socialist and Maxist Feminism. Liberal Feminism refers to women have equal opportunity to compete within the existing system; women can act as men given the equal opportunity;the institutions seem as specifically oppressive to women can be changed without any foundamental change in other soc

27、ial institutions; Radical Feminismrefers to oppression of women is built into the very structure of our society; division between the sexes,based on the partriarchal family ,is seen as foundamental to social organization; sees equality for women within the present system as impossible and calls for

28、a radical restructuring of society.and womens oppression is so deeply rooted that only a basic restructuring of society can change it. New Feminist Theories include Ecofeminism and Postmodern Feminism.Ecofeminism means women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ec

29、ological crisis within a society whose foundamental model of relationships continues to be one of the domination.they must unite the demands of the womens movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic sociecolomic relations and the underlying values of t

30、his society. Postmodern Feminism means From equality view towards "difference" view, admit the difference between men and women, based on the analysis of the relationship between the sexes, from women's uniqueness starting to see people, between people and nature, individual and social

31、 relationsIn Possession,both new and traditional theories are embodied, in which Byatt uses Radical Feminism and Postmodern Feminism to start from the females perspective.she figures some female image ,which makes the topics more distinctive ,from this female image ,we can know more about the femini

32、sms view of Byatt,in modern society,womens status and individual rights have been improved .if the women can stand on their own ,and have the courage to seek,they will eventually find their happiness.To be as an academic and literary critic, Byatt makes the scholars as the cretion central figure of

33、the novels, and fully displays her special intelligence and original literary ideas. She thinks, the novel should reflect the real life, and much more important is, they should bring the readers some philosophical inspiration. With the same as many other female writers, Byatt attches more importance

34、 on the womens survival circumstance, which including their social status, ideology and the relationship with others. She is always trying to escape from a kind of imprisonment, courage the female characters in a prisoner fight for independence. In his novel about the discussion or interviews of her

35、 novel, Byatt, has more than once talked about her feminist perspective. She is very understanding about the aspiring womens experience.she once said: “ we desire marriage and children, we desire a wedding, romantic love and sex life, we desire to be normal person”. . But, she has a distinctive foun

36、d to the creation of the common theme from the other women writers and that: “. being from Jane Austen to Morrison, we find that, perhaps the most important theme is they are afraid of marriage and houses will become the cage and dilemma for their life. Byatt has the theme of her masterpiece the pos

37、session a more incisively and vividly interpretation.In possession, Byatt as a female writer, she focuses her attention on women s living existence and emotional experiences back from the ancient time,along the Victorian period and down to the modern age.In Possession,the Victorian historical narrat

38、ive is mostly presented through women perspective,and the story is mainly related through the voice of women who,for a long time,had always been kept silence in the male-dominated society.Therefore,in the course of her reconstruction of the victorian history, Byatt creats a unique female narrative m

39、ode _communal narrative by resuscitating her female characters with their voice uttered and their perspective presented. and she has a profound view towards the females love and marriage.she has an Inclination Towards Postmodern Feminism.1.2 The Research Objectives and the Framework of the Thesis Th

40、is preliminary feminist study of Possession ainms to focus on the analysis of the feminine narration of the novel with a view to inierpretmg the feminist implications of the narrative strategies, which challenge and disrupt the conventional masculine narrative and justifying the feminist stance of B

41、yatt. In addition, this paper through the usge of the character image analysis method, aims to reveal the female psychological states in the patriarchal society, arouse the detorted female image ,and finally control the femenism of Byatt. This paper contains four part. The first part is the introduc

42、ation, including the brief introduction of Byatt, possession, the feminism, esearch objectives. through the introduction of this part, we can get a general understanding of this novel, its influence and the feminism ideas of Byatt. In addition, through the research of this thesis, this paper aims to

43、 reveal the female psychological states in the patriarchal society, arouse the character image detorted by the traditional male-dominated society, and control the feminism ideas of Byatt. The second part is the discussion about Byatts artistic technology in Possession. Including The Symbols in Posse

44、ssion to Present Feminism Thoughts, and the Unique Narrative Stragegy and Feminism. Through the analysis in this part, we can get a better understanding of Byatts feminism narrative strategies, then learn more about the feminism view in this novel. The third part is the main part of this paper, ie.

45、the analysis of the female characters in this novel, these female characters are all the typical representitive of the feminism. Through the analysis of them, we can learn the female psychological states and social living conditions in The Victorian Period, moreover, through the analysis, the strong

46、 feminism contained in the authors inner world. The four th part is the conclusion. In this part, the author concludes the related findings and future research development trend about this thesis.Chapter two Unfolding Feminism from the Artistic Techniques Employed by A.S. Byatt in Possession2.1 The

47、Symbols in Possession to Present Feminism ThoughtsThe successful use of symbolic images is one of the strong features of the fictional language in Possession.The images formed by the names of the characters and places symbolize the females confined physical or psychological spaces.the use of symbols

48、 in pairs greatly reveals the rich historical and cultural meanings in the novel.the symbolic images link history and reality ,time and space,and are significant in theme presenting and text constructing.In possession,Water and the rock are both symbolic words ,in Lamotts text,the female are most th

49、e water life,by figuring this, Byatt highly praises the females power.so ,Water in possession has a profound meaning.by analysing the description ofByatts Thomason Foss Under The Sunlight,we can know that here Water symbolizes the imprisoned female power,although the water is limited ,guided and pro

50、moted,it can still get through the cage of rocky composition.as long as it can search through the cracks,it will seek freedom upwards desperately. This is especially Byatt s Victorian and modern women's best portraiture.The femle writers from 19th century or even from the 20th century ,often use

51、 the imprisoned space in their works,to express their imprisoned thought .such as :the house ,the hole ,the attic,and the boxthe closed space image with symbolic meaning expresses the feeling that the women suffer confinement and the wish to escape from mens restriction.In possession,white is the es

52、sential colour,it is throughout the whole novel.it is the symbol of Purity and desire.more interesting is that Byatt links the the colour with the dragons and the snakes to show the human beings character.brown and blonde are the colour of the dragon, they are the symbol of the male and the male pow

53、er. And green ,white,and white-gold are all snakes colour,ther are the symbol of female and the female power.In possession, Byatt creats two pairs of mirror characters who are similar in many ways ,and by using the myths ,she tries to tell us independence and liberty are the foundation for them to c

54、ontinue their work,she insists female should separate their love from work.the affection、the marriage and the children will just be the obstacle of their success.2.2 The Unique Narrative Stragegy and Feminism In possession，the victorian historical narrative is mostly presented through womens perspec

55、tive , Byatt uses the a unique narrative mode-communal narrative to tell the four females story in the form of letters ,journals and poetries.the major roles in the Victorian era are all female ,except Ashy.they use the female perspective to watch and accuse the Patriarchal society,giving their auth

56、entical voice to tell their own story and their thinking.2.1.1. Discovery of Suspenseful Letters In Victorian society, women don't have the rights to participate in social discourse , neither the chance of a public voice,so Byatt can only consigh her artistic ideal to the rewritten personalities

57、 in the myth metaphorically.in Ashy and Lammots letters,Lammot often uses “we”to describe their experimrntal life,in one of her letters she says :we both hope to live in an ideal life,to have our beautiful dream come true,but we must stay away from the external world ,because in that world ,the fema

58、le are full of hope ,but meanwhile they are suffering from the horror.this is a secret appointment ,its just the life style we choose ,so you should believe ,to live a life of this kind ,I feel so delighted.2.2.2. Content of Correspondences and Journals Here the author gives an example for the illustrationThe Correspondences:(a correspondence from Ashy to Lammot). Dear