Dynamic tensions in A. S. Byatt’s “A Lamia in the Cévennes”

ABSTRACT

A. S. Byatt’s short story “A Lamia in the Cévennes” is built on a principle of dynamic tension that operates across all her work, established in the initial part of this article by her critique of D. H. Lawrence’s cosmological dichotomies, her subversion of gender and sexuality in Possession, the deconstruction of postmodern theory in The Biographer’s Tale, and her retelling of the myth of Melusine. The second part of the article analyzes how these dynamic tensions influence the story in question, from Byatt’s critique of Keats’s romanticism, to her subversion of the line between myth and reality, her examination of realism and abstraction through references to David Hockney, and her reframing of these questions in terms of artistic and cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality. These examples demonstrate the critical mindset at work in Byatt’s fiction, which confronts the complexities that necessarily co-exist in life and art.

KEYWORDS:

• A. S. Byatt
• dynamic tensions
• realism
• mythology
• lamia

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Peter Mathews

Peter Mathews is Professor of English Literature at Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea. His research lies primarily in the fields of modern and contemporary British and Australian fiction, with a particular emphasis on the connection between literature and ethics. He is currently working on a monograph reassessing the legacy of the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.