On The Indeterminacy In A.S. Byatt's Novel Possession

A. S. Byatt (1936- ) is a distinguished British novelist and literary critic of the 20th century. The novel Possession is her most successful work, which was published in 1990 and won the Booker Prize, the highest prize of British literature, in the same year. Possession encompasses poetry, correspondence, journals, fairy tales and other narrative genres and the whole story spans from the ancient times, Victorian period to the modern world. This great work can be regarded as one of the postmodern classics.The previous critics usually probed into this novel from different aspects, for example, feminism, postmodernism, Neo-historicism, and archetypal criticism. Although a few critics have noticed the postmodern features in this novel, their study is only limited to its themes and some aspects of postmodern writing techniques. There is no adequate attention paid to the indeterminacy reflected in this novel, but indeterminacy is the core feature of postmodern novels. The author in this thesis intends to make an analysis of this novel by using the postmodern indeterminacy theory.The thesis consists of five chapters besides an introduction and a conclusion.The introductory part briefs readers on A. S. Byatt and her works and the novel Possession, a literature review, a brief summary of the theory concerned, and the significance of this study.The first chapter focuses on postmodern indeterminacy which serves as the theoretical framework for the thesis and concentrates on the definition of indeterminacy, the background of indeterminacy, and ways of displaying indeterminacy in literary works.The second chapter analyzes the indeterminacy of narrations. Byatt combines the traditional Victorian narration with modern narration, and fictional narration with historical narration in novel creation. It is the interaction of different narrations, the constant shift of narrator's point of view, and readers'role that endows the novel's narration with indeterminacy.The third chapter mainly explores the indeterminacy of plot which is displayed through the structure of bifurcating development and open ending.The fourth chapter centers on the indeterminacy of characters. This novel is full of mysterious and indeterminate factors. The Victorian female poet LaMotte in the novel is mysterious to everybody. The disposition of modern scholars Roland and Maud and many other differences between them decide their indeterminate future and fate.The fifth chapter deals with the indeterminacy of language. Language is the most important factor of postmodernism. To some extent, the indeterminacy of postmodernism is the indeterminacy of language. The postmodern writers play the word games and create the language labyrinth which makes the language indeterminate.The conclusion summarizes the thesis. As a postmodern novel, the indeterminacy brings unprecedented reading experience to modern readers. Facing the multiple narrations, the complicated and confusing plot, crossed time and space, and the labyrinth-like language, readers have to actively think of and ponder over the text before they can enjoy themselves in the infinite world of novels.