A Hermeneutical Revisit to ‘Biographic Metafiction’ through A.S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance

ABSTRACT

A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession: A Romance has been confronting the critics and readers with several epistemological puzzles for more than two decades. The novel ostensibly offers antithetical views with regard to the prevalent understanding of what counts as knowledge, truth, and authorship. The present essay seeks to uncover the possible rationale behind such apparent inconsistencies, which involve the author’s seemingly deliberate attempt to guide our understanding of the narrative while maintaining a metafictional structure in it. Our essay explores the prospect of finding an atypical approach to solving this conundrum that Byatt’s acclaimed neo-Victorian novel presents to the readers.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Apoorva Shekher

Apoorva Shekher is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar.

Ansu Louis

Ansu Louis is Assistant Professor in the Department of HSS at Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Rupnagar, Punjab, India