A. S. Byatt, Possession

Kate Mitchell (Australian National University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1990

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Metafiction
Novel
Romance

Resources

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Recommended Reading

A. S. Byatt's sixth novel,

Possession: A Romance

, was published in 1990 to immediate commercial success and critical acclaim. It won the Booker Prize and the Irish Times/Aer Lingus International Friction prize, topped best-seller lists, and was into its eighth print run midway through 1991. In 2002 it was adapted into a rather less successful film directed by Neil LaBute which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ehle.

The novel's first epigraph, together with its subtitle, clearly positions Possession within the genre of Romance. While Romance is the structuring principle of the novel, among its narrative strategies is the plaiting together of a number of other genres whose origins are in the conventions of Romance, including gothic, sensation fiction and

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4494 words

Citation: Mitchell, Kate. "Possession". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2602, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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