From Loss To Pursuit: A Journey Of Identiy-seeking In A·S·Byatt's Possession

When identity-seeking has become a prominent issue of the socio-cultural discourse in the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, the whole human history seems to be a journey of identity-seeking."Identity", in short, can be seen as an answer to the question of"Who am I?"As an individual living in the society, one has to confront the problems of identity: Who am I? Why am I in the world? How to identify myself?Inevitably, the hero and heroine in the novel Possession, the masterpiece of A.S.Byatt, are also challenged by such a problem. Who is he/she? This thesis reinterprets this novel from the perspective of identity in the socio-cultural discourse with the help of relevant theories on identity. The hero Roland suffers from professional, economic, sexual frustration as well as academic confusion; while the heroine Maud is afraid of being in any form of relationship with a strong sense of insecurity. Both of them apparently lose themselves in the real world. On their way to pursue identity, Roland resorts to separating himself from the predecessor; while Maud takes a positive attitude to construct relationships with others. By means of cooperation and their own efforts, Roland and Maud finally succeed in identity-seeking.The thesis consists of five parts:It starts with a brief introduction to the author, the content of the novel and its literature review.Chapter One proposes an argument that pursuit of identity is a permanent issue. It starts from a brief analysis of theories on identity, and then moves on interpreting respectively the problems of the hero and heroine trapped in the loss of identity.Chapter Two aims to illustrate that confronting the changing concepts about themselves in the pursuit of identity, how the frustrated hero and insecure heroine in terms of different genders respectively behave and deal with the changes. These questions will be interpreted respectively from two aspects which affect the identity-seeking: self and other (relationship) and gender.Chapter Three illustrates the ways each of them applies in the pursuit of identity, and what kind of role the mutual cooperation plays in the process.The part of conclusion serves as a summary of ideas expressed in the thesis. Confronted with the loss of identity, Roland and Maud take different ways to pursue their identities and finally succeed in identity-seeking.