| A. S. Byatt (1936-) is a famous novelist and critic in the contemporary British literary world. Possession:A Romance, which is viewed as her breakthrough, won prestigious literary prizes, including the 1990 Booker Prize, perched on the best-seller lists and obtained extensive critical acclaim. This thesis is going to explore Byatt’s rewriting of the Melusine myth as a central symbol of androgyny and her usage of the Melusine paradigm to connect three paralleled female characters from different times, thus fulfilling a female genealogy. Furthermore, by adopting two time frames of the Victorian Age juxtaposing with the twentieth-century one, Byatt elucidates two male protagonists and their dynamic interaction with the female, in literary creation and research respectively. The complementariness and mutual influences lead to the genuine interplay between masculine and feminine elements and promote self-growth and self-realization, thus accomplishing the system of androgynous imagination.The first part of this thesis mainly talks about the original Melusine myth and Byatt’s adaption to build Melusine as the ancient embodiment of the androgynous imagination. In "The Fairy Melusina" which is a mythic epic written by the fictive poetess LaMotte, Byatt emphasizes that androgyny bestows upon the goddess superior wisdom and creativity. Moreover, Byatt adds Dahud as another Melusine avatar as presented in the poem "The City of Is" to enrich the ancient Melusine paradigm.The second part analyzes the characterization of Christabel LaMotte as an idealized Victorian androgynous artist as well as the androgyny influences on Ash and LaMotte’s artistic creation. LaMotte parallels with Melusine in five aspects and proves to be the first inheritor in the female genealogy. The mutual influence of the nineteenth-century poets in literary creation reflects that Byatt is desirous of harmony towards androgyny.The third part discusses the modern story level and the self-realization of Maud and Roland in their literary quest. Maud displays similarities with LaMotte and Melusine and turns out to be the direct descendant of the Ash-LaMotte affair, thereby eventually fulfilling the line of female genealogy. She is the modern embodiment of androgyny. Roland is an antihero who starts unsatisfactorily but gradually negotiates positive interaction with the proud Maud and grows to discover his poetic talents. The quest journey manifests a balance of the masculine and feminine impulses within the androgynous vision and results in personal self-realization. However, compared with the highly idealized Victorian pair, the present-day characters are puzzled by the conflicting postmodern systems of beliefs so as to be reduced to the ordinary plain beings. It can be argued that Byatt’s androgynous imagination is an ideal.By consulting relevant references and a close study of Possession, a conclusion will be drawn that Byatt’s androgynous imagination, as it is unfolded by a complete female genealogy, returns to history and reflects upon the contemporary condition, expects the comprehensive and harmonious development of the sexes and a balanced consciousness in self-realization. |
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