A Study Guide for A. S. Byatt's "Art Work"

A Study Guide for A. S. Byatt's

Author: Gale, Cengage Learning

Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning

Published:

Total Pages: 27

ISBN-13: 1410340406

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Book Synopsis A Study Guide for A. S. Byatt's "Art Work" by : Gale, Cengage Learning

Download or read book A Study Guide for A. S. Byatt's "Art Work" written by Gale, Cengage Learning and published by Gale, Cengage Learning . This book was released on with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


The Matisse Stories

The Matisse Stories

Author: A. S. Byatt

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-09-23

Total Pages: 96

ISBN-13: 0307488047

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Three delightful stories inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse—from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession and “a writer of dazzling inventiveness" (Time). "[An] exquisite triptych.... Richly drawn and touches upon things that matter to people." —People These stories celebrate the eye even as they reveal its unexpected proximity to the heart. For if each of A.S. Byatt's narratives is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling—about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being. Beautifully written, intensely observed, The Matisse Stories is fiction of spellbinding authority. "Full of delight and humor.... The Matisse Stories is studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion." —San Francisco Chronicle


Book Synopsis The Matisse Stories by : A. S. Byatt

Download or read book The Matisse Stories written by A. S. Byatt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2009-09-23 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three delightful stories inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse—from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession and “a writer of dazzling inventiveness" (Time). "[An] exquisite triptych.... Richly drawn and touches upon things that matter to people." —People These stories celebrate the eye even as they reveal its unexpected proximity to the heart. For if each of A.S. Byatt's narratives is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling—about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being. Beautifully written, intensely observed, The Matisse Stories is fiction of spellbinding authority. "Full of delight and humor.... The Matisse Stories is studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion." —San Francisco Chronicle


Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt

Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt

Author: Celia M. Wallhead

Publisher: Gale, Cengage Learning

Published:

Total Pages: 9

ISBN-13: 1535853514

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Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.


Book Synopsis Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt by : Celia M. Wallhead

Download or read book Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt written by Celia M. Wallhead and published by Gale, Cengage Learning . This book was released on with total page 9 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gale Researcher Guide for: Metafiction and Ekphrasis: The Case of A. S. Byatt is selected from Gale's academic platform Gale Researcher. These study guides provide peer-reviewed articles that allow students early success in finding scholarly materials and to gain the confidence and vocabulary needed to pursue deeper research.


The Children's Book

The Children's Book

Author: A. S. Byatt

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2009-11-03

Total Pages: 626

ISBN-13: 0307373835

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From the renowned author of Possession, The Children’s Book is the absorbing story of the close of what has been called the Edwardian summer: the deceptively languid, blissful period that ended with the cataclysmic destruction of World War I. In this compelling novel, A.S. Byatt summons up a whole era, revealing that beneath its golden surface lay tensions that would explode into war, revolution and unbelievable change — for the generation that came of age before 1914 and, most of all, for their children. The novel centres around Olive Wellwood, a fairy tale writer, and her circle, which includes the brilliant, erratic craftsman Benedict Fludd and his apprentice Phillip Warren, a runaway from the poverty of the Potteries; Prosper Cain, the soldier who directs what will become the Victoria and Albert Museum; Olive’s brother-in-law Basil Wellwood, an officer of the Bank of England; and many others from every layer of society. A.S. Byatt traces their lives in intimate detail and moves between generations, following the children who must choose whether to follow the roles expected of them or stand up to their parents’ “porcelain socialism.” Olive’s daughter Dorothy wishes to become a doctor, while her other daughter, Hedda, wants to fight for votes for women. Her son Tom, sent to an upper-class school, wants nothing more than to spend time in the woods, tracking birds and foxes. Her nephew Charles becomes embroiled with German-influenced revolutionaries. Their portraits connect the political issues at the heart of nascent feminism and socialism with grave personal dilemmas, interlacing until The Children’s Book becomes a perfect depiction of an entire world. Olive is a fairy tale writer in the era of Peter Pan and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In the Willows, not long after Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. At a time when children in England suffered deprivation by the millions, the concept of childhood was being refined and elaborated in ways that still influence us today. For each of her children, Olive writes a special, private book, bound in a different colour and placed on a shelf; when these same children are ferried off into the unremitting destruction of the Great War, the reader is left to wonder who the real children in this novel are. The Children’s Book is an astonishing novel. It is an historical feat that brings to life an era that helped shape our own as well as a gripping, personal novel about parents and children, life’s most painful struggles and its richest pleasures. No other writer could have imagined it or created it.


Book Synopsis The Children's Book by : A. S. Byatt

Download or read book The Children's Book written by A. S. Byatt and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-11-03 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the renowned author of Possession, The Children’s Book is the absorbing story of the close of what has been called the Edwardian summer: the deceptively languid, blissful period that ended with the cataclysmic destruction of World War I. In this compelling novel, A.S. Byatt summons up a whole era, revealing that beneath its golden surface lay tensions that would explode into war, revolution and unbelievable change — for the generation that came of age before 1914 and, most of all, for their children. The novel centres around Olive Wellwood, a fairy tale writer, and her circle, which includes the brilliant, erratic craftsman Benedict Fludd and his apprentice Phillip Warren, a runaway from the poverty of the Potteries; Prosper Cain, the soldier who directs what will become the Victoria and Albert Museum; Olive’s brother-in-law Basil Wellwood, an officer of the Bank of England; and many others from every layer of society. A.S. Byatt traces their lives in intimate detail and moves between generations, following the children who must choose whether to follow the roles expected of them or stand up to their parents’ “porcelain socialism.” Olive’s daughter Dorothy wishes to become a doctor, while her other daughter, Hedda, wants to fight for votes for women. Her son Tom, sent to an upper-class school, wants nothing more than to spend time in the woods, tracking birds and foxes. Her nephew Charles becomes embroiled with German-influenced revolutionaries. Their portraits connect the political issues at the heart of nascent feminism and socialism with grave personal dilemmas, interlacing until The Children’s Book becomes a perfect depiction of an entire world. Olive is a fairy tale writer in the era of Peter Pan and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind In the Willows, not long after Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. At a time when children in England suffered deprivation by the millions, the concept of childhood was being refined and elaborated in ways that still influence us today. For each of her children, Olive writes a special, private book, bound in a different colour and placed on a shelf; when these same children are ferried off into the unremitting destruction of the Great War, the reader is left to wonder who the real children in this novel are. The Children’s Book is an astonishing novel. It is an historical feat that brings to life an era that helped shape our own as well as a gripping, personal novel about parents and children, life’s most painful struggles and its richest pleasures. No other writer could have imagined it or created it.


Little Black Book of Stories

Little Black Book of Stories

Author: A. S. Byatt

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2007-12-18

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 0307426637

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An unforgettable collection of fairy tales for grownups—from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession. • “A delight.... provoking and alarming, richly yet tautly rendered.... [She] has the sheer narrative skill to raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make your pulse race.” —The New York Times Book Review Like Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, Isak Dinesen and Angela Carter, A. S. Byatt knows that fairy tales are for adults. And in this ravishing collection she breathes new life into the form. Little Black Book of Stories offers shivers along with magical thrills. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women, childhood friends reunited by chance, venture into a dark forest where once, many years before, they saw–or thought they saw–something unspeakable. Another woman, recently bereaved, finds herself slowly but surely turning into stone. A coolly rational ob-gyn has his world pushed off-axis by a waiflike art student with her own ideas about the uses of the body. Spellbinding, witty, lovely, terrifying, the Little Black Book of Stories is Byatt at the height of her craft.


Book Synopsis Little Black Book of Stories by : A. S. Byatt

Download or read book Little Black Book of Stories written by A. S. Byatt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unforgettable collection of fairy tales for grownups—from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession. • “A delight.... provoking and alarming, richly yet tautly rendered.... [She] has the sheer narrative skill to raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make your pulse race.” —The New York Times Book Review Like Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, Isak Dinesen and Angela Carter, A. S. Byatt knows that fairy tales are for adults. And in this ravishing collection she breathes new life into the form. Little Black Book of Stories offers shivers along with magical thrills. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women, childhood friends reunited by chance, venture into a dark forest where once, many years before, they saw–or thought they saw–something unspeakable. Another woman, recently bereaved, finds herself slowly but surely turning into stone. A coolly rational ob-gyn has his world pushed off-axis by a waiflike art student with her own ideas about the uses of the body. Spellbinding, witty, lovely, terrifying, the Little Black Book of Stories is Byatt at the height of her craft.


A View Of The Harbour

A View Of The Harbour

Author: Elizabeth Taylor

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2011-09-29

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 0748131574

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INTRODUCED BY SARAH WATERS 'Every one of her books is a treat and this is my favourite, because of its wonderful cast of characters, and because of the deftness with which Taylor's narrative moves between them ... A wonderful writer' SARAH WATERS In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for - and in on - each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is secretly involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory's best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good. 'Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience' - ELIZABETH BOWEN 'Always intelligent, often subversive and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person's dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, icy wit and freshness in a stimulating cocktail' - VALERIE MARTIN 'A magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' - DAVID BADDIEL


Book Synopsis A View Of The Harbour by : Elizabeth Taylor

Download or read book A View Of The Harbour written by Elizabeth Taylor and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INTRODUCED BY SARAH WATERS 'Every one of her books is a treat and this is my favourite, because of its wonderful cast of characters, and because of the deftness with which Taylor's narrative moves between them ... A wonderful writer' SARAH WATERS In the faded coastal village of Newby, everyone looks out for - and in on - each other, and beneath the deceptively sleepy exterior, passions run high. Beautiful divorcee Tory is secretly involved with her neighbour, Robert, while his wife Beth, Tory's best friend, is consumed by the worlds she creates in her novels, oblivious to the relationship developing next door. Their daughter Prudence is aware, however, and is appalled by the treachery she observes. Mrs Bracey, an invalid whose grasp on life is slipping, forever peers from her window, constantly prodding her daughters for news of the outside world. And Lily Wilson, a lonely young widow, is frightened of her own home. Into their lives steps Bertram, a retired naval officer with the unfortunate capacity to inflict lasting damage while trying to do good. 'Her stories remain with one, indelibly, as though they had been some turning-point in one's own experience' - ELIZABETH BOWEN 'Always intelligent, often subversive and never dull, Elizabeth Taylor is the thinking person's dangerous housewife. Her sophisticated prose combines elegance, icy wit and freshness in a stimulating cocktail' - VALERIE MARTIN 'A magnificent and underrated mid-20th-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike' - DAVID BADDIEL


Studying A.S. Byatt’s Fiction Is Like a Game

Studying A.S. Byatt’s Fiction Is Like a Game

Author: Soraya HEIS RODRÍGUEZ

Publisher: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca

Published: 2014-05-09

Total Pages: 19

ISBN-13:

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Desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, los estudios culturales ocupan sin duda un espacio menor. Sin embargo, los tres artículos aquí presentados dan cuenta de la variedad de perspectivas posibles dentro de este apartado. No solo abarcan estos estudios diferentes géneros literarios, sino que recorren diferentes épocas históricas, desde el renacimiento hasta nuestros días. Así, destaca la recepción de la obra de Shakespeare adaptada a los principios estéticos del siglo XVIII español, la aparición de un problema tan actual como la violencia doméstica en el teatro y el cine de mediados del siglo XX o la vinculación de posicionamientos contraculturales de la generación Beat en la música de Bod Dylan. Todos estos estudios exploran, pues, la relación entre las prácticas culturales, la vida diaria y los contextos históricos en los que se producen. Como suele ser habitual, gran parte de las contribuciones presentadas en este volumen se centran en el estudio del aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua, una de las principales preocupaciones del sistema educativo español en estos momentos, tanto en la etapa preuniversitaria como universitaria. Es lógico, por tanto, que estos jóvenes investigadores muestren interés por un asunto que atañe a un elevado número de estudiantes en la sociedad actual. Los estudios van desde el análisis de libros de texto utilizados en la enseñanza del inglés, para comprobar si estos textos adoptan correctamente las cuatro destrezas básicas (listening, speaking, speaking, writing) al aprendizaje de la lengua desde el punto de vista de una aproximación comunicativa, hasta la relación de la prosodia y la utilización de audífonos por parte de personas sordas o la percepción que tienen los estudiantes de la pronunciación del inglés. Como se ve, problemas muy cercanos a la realidad pedagógica. Las contribuciones literarias se centran exclusivamente en autores del siglo XX (incluida una adaptación al Londres actual de una obra de Shakespeare), pero recorren todos los géneros literarios, así como el cine. En general, estos estudios se fijan en obras concretas y las analizan desde perspectivas culturales, sociológicas o psicológicas. Podemos encontrar autores consagrados, como Theodore Roethke y Ted Hughes o escritoras más localistas, como la canadiense Jeannette Armstrong, y sobresalen miradas postmodernistas, tanto en el ámbito de la novela como del cine. En definitiva, se trata de una selección de artículos altamente prometedora, que supone un claro desafío al futuro de los Estudios Ingleses. Por todo ello, hay que felicitar a todos los participantes y, sobre todo, a los editores de este volumen, que han demostrado una enorme capacidad de trabajo y entusiasmo.


Book Synopsis Studying A.S. Byatt’s Fiction Is Like a Game by : Soraya HEIS RODRÍGUEZ

Download or read book Studying A.S. Byatt’s Fiction Is Like a Game written by Soraya HEIS RODRÍGUEZ and published by Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca. This book was released on 2014-05-09 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Desde un punto de vista cuantitativo, los estudios culturales ocupan sin duda un espacio menor. Sin embargo, los tres artículos aquí presentados dan cuenta de la variedad de perspectivas posibles dentro de este apartado. No solo abarcan estos estudios diferentes géneros literarios, sino que recorren diferentes épocas históricas, desde el renacimiento hasta nuestros días. Así, destaca la recepción de la obra de Shakespeare adaptada a los principios estéticos del siglo XVIII español, la aparición de un problema tan actual como la violencia doméstica en el teatro y el cine de mediados del siglo XX o la vinculación de posicionamientos contraculturales de la generación Beat en la música de Bod Dylan. Todos estos estudios exploran, pues, la relación entre las prácticas culturales, la vida diaria y los contextos históricos en los que se producen. Como suele ser habitual, gran parte de las contribuciones presentadas en este volumen se centran en el estudio del aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua, una de las principales preocupaciones del sistema educativo español en estos momentos, tanto en la etapa preuniversitaria como universitaria. Es lógico, por tanto, que estos jóvenes investigadores muestren interés por un asunto que atañe a un elevado número de estudiantes en la sociedad actual. Los estudios van desde el análisis de libros de texto utilizados en la enseñanza del inglés, para comprobar si estos textos adoptan correctamente las cuatro destrezas básicas (listening, speaking, speaking, writing) al aprendizaje de la lengua desde el punto de vista de una aproximación comunicativa, hasta la relación de la prosodia y la utilización de audífonos por parte de personas sordas o la percepción que tienen los estudiantes de la pronunciación del inglés. Como se ve, problemas muy cercanos a la realidad pedagógica. Las contribuciones literarias se centran exclusivamente en autores del siglo XX (incluida una adaptación al Londres actual de una obra de Shakespeare), pero recorren todos los géneros literarios, así como el cine. En general, estos estudios se fijan en obras concretas y las analizan desde perspectivas culturales, sociológicas o psicológicas. Podemos encontrar autores consagrados, como Theodore Roethke y Ted Hughes o escritoras más localistas, como la canadiense Jeannette Armstrong, y sobresalen miradas postmodernistas, tanto en el ámbito de la novela como del cine. En definitiva, se trata de una selección de artículos altamente prometedora, que supone un claro desafío al futuro de los Estudios Ingleses. Por todo ello, hay que felicitar a todos los participantes y, sobre todo, a los editores de este volumen, que han demostrado una enorme capacidad de trabajo y entusiasmo.


Medusa's Ankles

Medusa's Ankles

Author: A. S. Byatt

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 0593321596

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A ravishing, luminous selection of short stories from the prize-winning imagination of A. S. Byatt, "a storyteller who could keep a sultan on the edge of his throne for a thousand and one nights" (The New York Times Book Review). With an introduction by David Mitchell, best-selling author of Cloud Atlas Mirrors shatter at the hairdresser's when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess, honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real. Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her readers beyond the veneer of the ordinary—even beyond the gloss of the fantastical—to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.


Book Synopsis Medusa's Ankles by : A. S. Byatt

Download or read book Medusa's Ankles written by A. S. Byatt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-11-23 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ravishing, luminous selection of short stories from the prize-winning imagination of A. S. Byatt, "a storyteller who could keep a sultan on the edge of his throne for a thousand and one nights" (The New York Times Book Review). With an introduction by David Mitchell, best-selling author of Cloud Atlas Mirrors shatter at the hairdresser's when a middle-aged client explodes in rage. Snow dusts the warm body of a princess, honing it into something sharp and frosted. Summer sunshine flickers on the face of a smiling child who may or may not be real. Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her readers beyond the veneer of the ordinary—even beyond the gloss of the fantastical—to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.


A.S.Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity

A.S.Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity

Author: C. Franken

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2001-06-04

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 0230510043

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This book considers the work of the novelist and critic A.S. Byatt in the context of contemporary debates about art, authorship, creativity and gender. A.S. Byatt emerges as an author who presents us with fascinating and ambivalent portraits of writers and who uses metaphors of creativity in original ways.


Book Synopsis A.S.Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity by : C. Franken

Download or read book A.S.Byatt: Art, Authorship, Creativity written by C. Franken and published by Springer. This book was released on 2001-06-04 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the work of the novelist and critic A.S. Byatt in the context of contemporary debates about art, authorship, creativity and gender. A.S. Byatt emerges as an author who presents us with fascinating and ambivalent portraits of writers and who uses metaphors of creativity in original ways.


The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt

The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt

Author: Elizabeth Hicks

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2010-08-11

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1443824607

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This book explores the ways in which English writer A. S. Byatt’s visual still lifes (descriptions of real or imagined artworks) and what are termed “verbal still lifes” (scenes such as laid tables, rooms and market stalls) are informed by her veneration of both realism and writing. It examines Byatt’s adoption of the Barthesian concept of textual pleasure, showing how her ekphrastic descriptions involve consumption and take time to unfold for the reader, thereby highlighting the limitations of painting. It also investigates the ways in which Byatt’s still lifes demonstrate her debts to English modernist author Virginia Woolf, French writer Marcel Proust, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of nineteenth-century Britain. A number of Byatt’s verbal still lifes are read as semiotic markers of her characters, particularly with regard to economic status and class. Further, her descriptions uniting food and sexuality are perceived as part of her overall representation of pleasure. Finally, Byatt’s employment of vanitas iconography in many of her portrayals of death is discussed showing how her recurring motif of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” teases out the still life’s inherent tension between living passion and “cold” artwork.


Book Synopsis The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt by : Elizabeth Hicks

Download or read book The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt written by Elizabeth Hicks and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-08-11 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the ways in which English writer A. S. Byatt’s visual still lifes (descriptions of real or imagined artworks) and what are termed “verbal still lifes” (scenes such as laid tables, rooms and market stalls) are informed by her veneration of both realism and writing. It examines Byatt’s adoption of the Barthesian concept of textual pleasure, showing how her ekphrastic descriptions involve consumption and take time to unfold for the reader, thereby highlighting the limitations of painting. It also investigates the ways in which Byatt’s still lifes demonstrate her debts to English modernist author Virginia Woolf, French writer Marcel Proust, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of nineteenth-century Britain. A number of Byatt’s verbal still lifes are read as semiotic markers of her characters, particularly with regard to economic status and class. Further, her descriptions uniting food and sexuality are perceived as part of her overall representation of pleasure. Finally, Byatt’s employment of vanitas iconography in many of her portrayals of death is discussed showing how her recurring motif of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” teases out the still life’s inherent tension between living passion and “cold” artwork.