| A. S. Byatt (1936-) is one of the most prominent writers, as well as a famous poet and critic in the contemporary era in British literature. Since her first novel, Shadow of the Sun, came out in 1964, Byatthas created 29 works and has been awarded 271 iterature prizes. In these works, Byatt showed her sustained attention to the Victorian era. Many of her works, such as Possession (1990), Angels and Insects(1992), and The Biographer's Tale(2000), are based on the social background of the Victorian age. Among these literary works, Possession was given a great praise as soon as it came out. In the same year, with this majestic and elegant work, Byatt won the Man Booker Prize, the highest rank of prizes in the field of English fictions, which laid her unshakable status in the literary world.Based on the social background of the Victorian age, Possession portrays several Victorian female writers and modern female scholars and goddess in myth. In this work which centers on the description of women, Byatt did not create female characters in the ways that those feminist scholars usually use, as she said that she admitted that she had certain suspicion of feminist criticism, although she was also a feminist writer. From the perspective of Foucault's theory, this thesis is to analyze wom en's living condition, their resistance against men's power, and their final discipline in the Victorian age, so that people can get a better understanding of Possession and its author, Byatt.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter one firstly briefly in troduces to Byatt and her fic tion, Possession, then reviews those researches on Byatt and Possession both at hom e and abroad since Possession came out, pointing out that in the previous studies, few scholars interpret Possession from the perspective of Foucault's power theory, and further interprets the perspective and significance of this thesis. Lastly, Foucault's theories are introduced, including power-discourse, discipline and punishment.Chapter two mainly explores women's living conditions in the Victorian age, pointing out the social fact that women were disciplined by men's power at that time. Women were gazed by "eyes of power" confined in their house sacrificing themselves for a family and always kept silent in the Victorian age.Chapter three in terprets women's rebell ion against m en's power in the Victorian age. Jus like Foucault pointed out that power can produce, so women's rebellion was an inevitable production of the operation of men's power. This chapter discusses the resistance against men's power in the Victorian age by the semi-seclusive life of LaMotte and Branch, rewriting myth by female scholars in the Victorian age, and women's diaries and letters. Meanwhile, this chapter points out that women's rebellion against men's power in Possession shows no extreme behavior or statement in comparison to that of American and French f eminist. In Possession, women's resistance is t o rest ore wo men's images and express women's feeling through writing, whose image is also elegant in spite of their resistance to men's powerChapter four discusses women's discip linary an d their pu nishment after their re bellion against men's power. LaMotte is deprived of her identity of a mother, leading a lonely life in the rest of her time, which is the punishment to her for her rebellion against the social rules of that time. After giving birth to her daughter, LaMotte finally gets disciplined, she confines herself in the turret, and her poetic talents are exhausted, writing nothing as excellent as Melusina.Chapter five is the conclusion of this thesis. LaM otte's end ing turns out to be sad, but her descendant, Maud, harvests her own happiness in the process of seeking stories about LaMotte. Based on her own experience, Byatt reveals such a fact that family can't be an obstacle in women's self-pursuit and career any more in modern times, women can even make great achievements while managing their family. |
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