Description
Book Synopsis This book provides a comprehensive reading of some of A.S. Byatt’s major novels. Focusing on memory, Renaissance forms of theatrical reinvention in post-war culture, ekphrasis, visuality, the cognitive processes of the mind, gender and science, the book retraces a network of theoretical questions illuminating the author’s fictional world from within. This study devotes special attention to the craft with which Byatt translates complex issues into imaginative fiction, engaging with Byatt’s texts. It presents a lucid and coherent account of a wide range of arguments underpinning the work of one of the most prolific and acclaimed contemporary writers.
Trade Review«With her perceptive textual analyses, and the extensive dialogue she establishes between the novels and the social, historical and cultural questions they mobilise, Cambiaghi does justice to the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural aspects of Byatt’s fiction, in a volume that will no doubt become essential reading to scholars, students and perceptive Byatt fans alike.»
(Barbara Franchi, C21 Literature: Journal of 21st-Century Writings, 9 (1), 2021)
Table of ContentsCultural memory, Renaissance memory systems, Visual culture, Ekphrasis, Cognitive science, Media and TV, Gender, Post-war English culture, The sixties, 1968, Myth and fairy tales, Fiction and critical discourse, Intertextuality, Blending theory, Victorian and postmodern culture.
