Possession As A Metafiction In The Form Of A Detective Fiction

The publication of Possession established A. S. Byatt’s reputation as a world-renowned British novelist. While critics applaud Possession for its appeal as a postmodern text, its ambitious treatment of history and its feminist connotations, very few have treated it as a metafiction in the form of a detective fiction, and above all, that of a metaphysical detective fiction.Based on previous studies, this thesis intends to interpret Possession within the theoretical framework of the metaphysical detective fiction. Firstly, the present author reviews the origin and development of detective fiction and identifies the literary nature of the detection in Possession. Then she identifies pastiche, parody and mise-en-abyme as the three main metafictional strategies Byatt adopts to redirect the reader’s attention from the detective plot to her practice of fiction writing. Lastly, she explores Byatt’s subversion and reconstruction of the traditional detective fiction from three aspects: the detectives as missing persons, the defeated detectives and the non-solution. Based on the analysis, the present author comes to the conclusion that Possession is a metafiction in the form of a detective fiction, namely, a metaphysical detective fiction, through which Byatt shows her penetrating insights into fiction and reality, into literary creation.