Historiographic metafiction in AS. Byatt's Possession

Abstract

This thesis examines the romance Possession and how it both radically converges with the established notions of Historiographic Metafiction as advocated by A.S. B1att in her book A Poetics of Postmodemism- History, Theory, Fiction ( 1988). It argues that the novel is essentially a historiographic metafictional text despite what critics might say. Chapter 1 of this thesis focuses on presenting the reader with the most important concepts which constitute the notions of both Metafiction and Historiographic Metafiction. Waugh's ideas will be discussed in the light of the former literary phenomenon whilst Hutcheon' s views will be focused on for the latter literary concept. Chapter 2 presents the reader with the main points of convergence between Possession and Hutcheon' s notions and justifies these similarities by exemplifying them with extracts taken from Possession. Chapter 3 goes on to examine the issue of intertextuality in Possession and how it is essentially bound to both parody and pastiche. Once more, examples from Possession will be used in order clearly delineate the arguments presented.