초목신화에 담긴 역사인식: A. S. 바이어트의 『소유』를 중심으로

Abstract

This paper is to study A. S. Byatt's sense of history in “the vegetation myth” of Possession and her essays on myth and literature. From Plato to Byatt, famous historic debates on myth and literature mainly focus on the origin and the role of literature. While Plato debases literature as a lower mimesis of Idea and condemns poet's inspiration as a delusive sway of “the possessed,” many authors defend literature as an embodiment of the truth, a comprehensive and everlasting creation, and a true expression of life and world. Byatt, following Frazer, Freud, and Nietzsche's argument, and based on Vico's assertion of circularly revolving history, explains literature as an integrated presentation of all human, natural, and supernatural beings revealed in myth, history, and reality. Just as one seed contains the whole part of the plant and incessantly dies and ceaselessly revives, Byatt tries to depict divine presence in human history with her archetypal mythic characters. Through the shifts from Melusina's myth to Ash and LaMotte's historical time and to Roland and Maud’s modern real world, Byatt reveals the intrinsic desire in human beings and its potential to resurrect the age of sterility. The vegetation myth, as a core concept of Possession, shows the everlasting and selfsame vital force, in spite of individuals' despair and death. Throughout Possession, Byatt asserts the value of literature with her emphasis on vegetation myth and an optimistic view toward ever revolving human history.