This Guide examines the key critical responses to Byatt's fiction (both her novels and short stories) tracing the wider debates about realism, postmodernism and feminism with which they engage. The Guide also explores the themes which are central to Byatt's work, such as her depiction of writer-figures and her conception of artistic vision.
Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- Autobiography, Art and Gender: The Shadow of the Sun (1964) and The Game (1967).- The Past, Language and Reality: The Virgin in The Garden (1978).- Verbal and Visual Art: Still Life (1985).- Postmodernism vs. Realism: Possession: A Romance (1990).- The Presence of the Past: Possession: A Romance (1990).- Neo-Victorian Fiction: Angels and Insects (1992) and The Biographer's Tale (2000).- Language and Memory: Babel Tower (1996).- The Conclusion of the Quartet: A Whistling Woman (2002).- Fiction-Making, Fairy-Tales and Feminism: Short Stories.- Conclusion.- Notes.- Bibliography.- Index.
LOUISA HADLEY is a part-time tutor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, UK.Byatt is a popular and widelystudied British author
Features two chapters dedicated to
Possession, Byatt's most wellknown novel
Adopts an easytofollow chronological structure and contains an extensive bibliography to aid study