From Possessing To Coexisting: An Ecofeminist Interpretation Of Possession

A.S.Byatt is a glaring star in the contemporary British literary world, and isrenowned for her distinguished creation in novels. Her masterpiece Possession,magnificent on scale, fervent in passion, culminates her career of literary creation, andwon the1990Booker Prize, the highest honor of books in Britain. The researchesinvolving the novel mainly focus on the characters, themes, symbolism，uniquenarrative strategies, feminist approaches, mythological prototype and postmodernismtechniques of the novel. Therefore, A.S.Byatt and her masterpiece Possession areworthwhile for study.Meanwhile, ecofeminism is growing vigorously all over the world. Byatt, as afemale writer in the late20thcentury, expresses her deep concern on the destiny ofwomen and nature, which is the very focus of the ecofeminists. However, there isalmost no employment of ecofeminism in the interpretation of Possession. Therefore,based on the newly developed theory ecofeminism, this thesis is in a bold attempt todelve out the ecofeminist connotations on the part of the novel, and the author’s greatappreciation and hope of harmonious relations among men, women and.nature, and amoral society.The thesis mainly includes five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction ofA.S.Byatt and her fiction Possession and literature review. The second chapterevolves the theory ecofeminism and Byatt’s ecological consciousness. The thirdchapter analyzes the novel from the approach of ecofeminisim in terms of womennature affinity, the interpretation of patriarchal oppression in myth, Victoria andmodern eras and the accusation of contemporary social values. The fourth chapterseeks to achieve the harmonious relation among men, women and nature by means ofoneness between men and nature. The fifth chapter is the conclusion.