On Intertextuality Of Byatt's Possession

Possession (1990), written by the contemporary English writer A.S. Byatt (1936—), won the Booker Prize, the highest literary prize in England in 1990. Byatt thus earns an international fame. Possession employs the predecessor's narrative discourse and writing methods creatively. By combining different types and different period texts, it melts them into an organic wholeness successfully. In Possession, poems, pure literature such as letters, myths and fairy tales combine with detective stories, all of them are displayed to the reader. Byatt utilizes allusion, fairy tales and myth by means of parody, imitation and adaptation to vividly narrate the love stories of two pairs of lovers in different eras. The intertextual text gives readers an unlimited imagination space. Critics show interest in it. They analyze the novel from the perspectives of feminism, archetype and narrative strategies. However, they didn't pay more attention to the intertextuality phenomena in Possession. This thesis tries to interpret Possession from the perspective of intertextuality.Intertetxuality was first coined by French scholar Juria Kristeva. She believes that every text connects with the former and the coetaneous and it is the result of the assimilation and transposition of the former text. Every text is not an isolated creation, but the adaptation, citation, transposition and collage of the previous text. After the appearance of the theory, many western literary critics carry on research on it. The domestic scholars divide intertextuality into macro-intertextuality and micro-intertextuality. Macro-intertextuality refers to the overall arrangement of the text which is similar to a former work. Compared with macro-intertextuality, micro-intertextuality deals with the writing skills in detail. It includes allusion, collage, parody, and citation, etc. This thesis analyzes Possession from the perspective of macro-intertextuality and micro-intertextuality.The intertextuality in Possession has multiple roots: Byatt's educational background, social identity and literary tradition. Possession exhibits the fruit of Byatt's years'of extensive reading and it stimulates the reader's strong desire to read. The author's excellent memory and the flexible using of intertextuality apply a huge imagination space and reading pleasure to the reader. The intertextuality phenomenon tells us how an author absorbs the nutrition of other works. Intertextuality isn't just an imitation to the previous work. There is some necessary change and creation in the new work.