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Palgrave Macmillan

A. S. Byatt and Intellectual Women

Fictions, Histories, Myths

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Leanne Bibby

    1. School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK

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  • Explores how Byatt’s fiction constitutes a reading and reconstruction of the patriarchal myth of the intellectual
  • Spans the entirety of Byatt’s oeuvre, including both her early novels and short stories, and most recent books
  • Offers new ways of thinking about women’s relationship to intellectualism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing (PSCWW)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Cultural Histories of the Intellectual: From Patriarchal Myth to Feminist Mythopoeia

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 1-41

  3. A. S. Byatt: Creating the Intellectual Woman

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 43-77

  4. Minds and Bodies

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 79-115

  5. Women Intellectuals and Sexual Specificity

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 117-149

  6. Women Intellectuals, Private Intellectuals?

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 151-181

  7. Fictions and Future Histories of Intellectual Women

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 183-215

  8. Afterword: Ragnarok: The End of the Gods

    • Leanne Bibby
    Pages 217-223

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 225-241
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Keywords

About this book

This monograph is a study of the work of British author A. S. Byatt, exploring the cultural representation of the woman intellectual in her fiction. It argues that Byatt’s representations of this figure show narratives of intellectual women to be inherently mythopoeic, or capable of restructuring the myth of the intellectual as male by default. This mythopoeia is, furthermore, intrinsically feminist in function, thus potentially broadening the conventional, limited view of women in intellectual history. The book will be the first study of Byatt’s work to examine this figure in detail, and the first study of women intellectuals in historical and literary discourse to apply concepts of mythopoeia and sexual difference in ways that allow new readings of women’s status and work in public spheres.

Reviews

“Bibby’s book proves rewarding in its discussion of Byatt’s female characters, particularly regarding their relationship with art, history, and the patriarchal tradition. There are moments of insight when she unravels the plethora of cultural theories that contribute to the making of Byatt’s unique women intellectuals, whose life stories vie with those of their male counterparts for the reader’s attention.” (Xiuchun Zhang, Women's Studies, Vol. 52 (1), 2023)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK

    Leanne Bibby

About the author

Leanne Bibby is Senior Lecturer in English Studies at Teesside University, UK.

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