The Construction Of Female Identity In Possession: A Romance From The Perspective Of Spatial Narrative

Antonia Susan Byatt,winner of the Booker Prize,is a brilliant British novelist,poet and literary critic.Her fifth novel Possession: A Romance can be regarded as a history book of women,in which A.S.Byatt constructs many typical female characters from ancient time to modern society covering the whole historical process of human being.Female identity is an everlasting topic that receives hot discussion for all the time,which indicates that female identity still needs exploration.The process of looking for identity is the process of being accepted by the society.In Possession: A Romance,Byatt realizes the juxtaposition of spaces by joining three different historical spaces together with the help of her extraordinary narrative skills.Based on these unique female characters in Possession: A Romance,the author of this thesis carries out her study on the construction of female identity of the novel.In this thesis,the author simplifies the definition of female identity into the question of “who she is”,and answers it from two aspects: the definition given by the society and that given by women themselves.From the perspective of spatial narrative,the reconstructed literary world of text can be divided into three aspects of spaces: topographical space,chronologic space and textual space.Among them,the topographical and chronologic space give answers to society’s definition towards women by constructing the living space and social space of female characters.The poems and diaries of female characters construct female voice,which answer the question “how women define themselves”.By answering these two questions,female identity is constructed.As an essential part of human society,female psychology should be concerned.Though female have received acceptance of the society,new problems arise in the new mode of relationship.There are quite a lot of astonishing news about how a well-educated girl loses herself in the romantic relationship with a boy.These examples show that female are not confident enough about themselves.It is the lack of self-assurance that leads to further problems.In the new era,the discussion of female identity should focus on female themselves.The author of this thesis intends to tell female that a woman has to be judgedand defined by the society because she lives there,while there is space for herself to decide who she is.The author tries to complete the composition of female identity to encourage female treat their identities in a more objective way.Only when female find their positions in society can they make more progress for human society.