Possessing the Fairy Melusina’s “Self-sufficient” Identity in A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance
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The purpose of this paper is to see the fairy tale of Melusina written by LaMotte as a motif for understanding the female characters in A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance (1990). Melusina is an embodiment of the “self-sufficient identity” in that she is “capable of generation life, or meanings, on her own,” without the need of external help. Possession is the tale of the two young scholars, Maud Baily and Roland Michell, researching the lives of two Victorian Poets, Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Ash. The story begins with Michell’s discovering secret love letters written by Ash to an unknown woman. He asks for some help from Baily to do some more research on this secret. In the course of the quest, Baily and Michell find out the two poets had a daughter. At the same time, this quest leads Baily to reconsider women writers’ positions in the Victorian age as well as in modern society. The female characters seem to seek solutions about their own problems as either a scholar or artist by themselves. In particular, LaMotte and Baily represent a woman artist or scholar’s independent position transcending time and space. For their independence, women characters transform themselves. This is related to the aspect of Melusina who changes herself into a good wife or a dragon. That is, shape shifting is used as a strategy for a woman who wants to possess her “self-sufficient” identity. LaMotte changes her hair style and avoids revealing her daughter because she wants to protect her from the society’s repression. Baily changes her attitude towards a man and comes to possess her identity through both being possessed by and possessing Michell, like Vivien in the Merlin and Vivien tale. In order to show these female tales crossing the boundaries of time and space, Byatt uses the genre of Romance in that she thinks the soul can be free of the restraints of history and fact. She highlights Romance can be a good tool for women artists to express their true natures freely. With this, Byatt deals with the discovery of a variety of unheard female voices with the fairy tale of Melusina.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to see the fairy tale of Melusina written by LaMotte as a motif for understanding the female characters in A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance (1990). Melusina is an embodiment of the “self-sufficient identity” in that she is “capable of generation life, or meanings, on her own,” without the need of external help. Possession is the tale of the two young scholars, Maud Baily and Roland Michell, researching the lives of two Victorian Poets, Christabel LaMotte and Randolph Ash. The story begins with Michell’s discovering secret love letters written by Ash to an unknown woman. He asks for some help from Baily to do some more research on this secret. In the course of the quest, Baily and Michell find out the two poets had a daughter. At the same time, this quest leads Baily to reconsider women writers’ positions in the Victorian age as well as in modern society. The female characters seem to seek solutions about their own problems as either a scholar or artist by themselves. In particular, LaMotte and Baily represent a woman artist or scholar’s independent position transcending time and space. For their independence, women characters transform themselves. This is related to the aspect of Melusina who changes herself into a good wife or a dragon. That is, shape shifting is used as a strategy for a woman who wants to possess her “self-sufficient” identity. LaMotte changes her hair style and avoids revealing her daughter because she wants to protect her from the society’s repression. Baily changes her attitude towards a man and comes to possess her identity through both being possessed by and possessing Michell, like Vivien in the Merlin and Vivien tale. In order to show these female tales crossing the boundaries of time and space, Byatt uses the genre of Romance in that she thinks the soul can be free of the restraints of history and fact. She highlights Romance can be a good tool for women artists to express their true natures freely. With this, Byatt deals with the discovery of a variety of unheard female voices with the fairy tale of Melusina.
참고문헌 (22)
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