A Study Of Female Identity Construction In Possession

Widely-known as a winner of Booker Prize,A.S.Byatt is one of the most intelligent and creative writers in contemporary British literary circle.Byatt is closely associated with writing woman,which can be found in her landmark work Possession:A Romance.Based on the foundation of studies on Byatt and her works,this thesis is going to study the female identities in modern time,in ancient time and in Victorian age with Edward Soja’s Thirdspace theory.This thesis unfolds into three chapters.Chapter One concentrates on Ellen and LaMotte in Victorian age,and discloses their modes of being by expounding their real living space.In a rigid social space,they can only reduce to be "angel in the house" and "artist in the attic".As a woman,their existence represents female landscape in Victorian age.And Chapter Two focuses on the princess and Melusina in the imagined space created by the rewritten myths and fairy tales,where the archetypal images of weakness are deconstructed and new androgynous and autonomous female characters are reconstructed.Myths,as well as fairy tales,play a role on recognition of identities and reconstruction of self.And Chapter Three focuses its attention on Val and Maud in modern time.In this open Thirdspace,from their various life experiences and individual values,Val and Maud have realized their identity transformation due to personal choices.Val finds her true love and becomes confident and beautiful instead of being silent and lost;while Maud has recognized herself after shedding her identity as a cold woman.In pursuit of the Victorian romance,she gets Roland’s love and is no longer cold with others.Furthermore,Maud has inherited women’s literary tradition from her ancestor LaMotte and made new progress in her career.