Identity and Cultural Memory in the Fiction of A.S. Byatt Knitting the Net of Culture

This book provides innovative readings of the key texts of A.S. Byatt's oeuvre by analysing the negotiations of individual identity, cultural memory, and literature which inform Byatt's novels. Steveker explores the concepts of identity constructed in the novels, showing them to be deeply rooted in British literary history and cultural memory.

Lena Steveker teaches British Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University, Germany.

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I: IDENTITY 
Concepts of Identity in Possession and The Biographers Tale
Self and Other in Possession and The Biographers Tale
Concepts of Identity in A.S. Byatts Tetralogy
The Gendered Self 60
Female Autonomy 75
Reconciling Body and Mind: the 'Thinking Woman'
PART II: IDENTITY CULTURAL MEMORY LITERATURE 
Identity and Memory
Figures of Memory: Elizabeth I and Shakespeare
Cultural Texts: Identity and Literature
Imaginary Museums: Intertextuality and Cultural Memory
Memorial Novels: the English Renaissance and the Victorian Age
Mnemonic Spaces: Identity and Genre
Conclusion
Notes and References
Bibliography
Index