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A. S. Byatt

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A. S. Byatt
Byatt in June 2007 in Lyon, France.
Byatt in June 2007 in Lyon, France.
BornAntonia Susan Drabble
(1936-08-24) 24 August 1936 (age 88)
Sheffield, England, U.K.
OccupationWriter, poet
NationalityEnglish
Period1964–present
Website
http://www.asbyatt.com

Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE (commonly known as A. S. Byatt born 24 August 1936, Sheffield) is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner. In 2008, The Times newspaper named her among their list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.[1]

Life and career

Byatt was born as Antonia Susan Drabble, the daughter of John Drabble, QC, and Kathleen Bloor, a scholar of Browning.[2] Byatt was educated at Sheffield High School and the Quaker Mount School, and noted in an interview in 2009 "I am not a Quaker, of course, because I'm anti-Christian and the Quakers are a form of Christianity but their religion is wonderful – you simply sat in silence and listened to the nature of things."[2] She went on to Newnham College, Cambridge, Bryn Mawr in the United States, and Somerville College, Oxford.[3] Sister to novelist Margaret Drabble and art historian Helen Langdon, Byatt lectured in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of London University (1962–71),[4] the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and from 1972 to 1983 at University College London.[4]

Fiction

The story of a young girl growing up in the shadow of a dominant father, Byatt's first novel, The Shadow of the Sun was published in 1964. Her novel The Game (1967), charts the dynamics between two sisters[4] and the family theme is continued in her quartet The Virgin in the Garden (1978), Still Life (1985), Babel Tower (1996) and A Whistling Woman (2002), Still Life winning the PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award in 1989.[4] Her quartet of novels is inspired by D. H. Lawrence, particularly to The Rainbow and Women in Love.

Describing mid-20th-century Britain, the books follow the life of Frederica Potter, a young female intellectual studying at Cambridge at a time when women were heavily outnumbered by men at that university, and then tracing her journey as a divorcée with a young son making a new life in London.

Byatt says some of the characters in her fiction represent her "greatest terror which is simple domesticity [...] I had this image of coming out from under and seeing the light for a bit and then being shut in a kitchen, which I think happened to women of my generation."[2] In interviews, she has also mentioned her own mother's frustration & repressed anger at being a home-maker, despite having a University Degree.

Like Babel Tower, A Whistling Woman touches on the utopian and revolutionary dreams of the 1960s through the description of Student unrest on a university campus, and the creation of an Anti-university by a charismatic figure. She describes herself as "a naturally pessimistic animal": "I don't believe that human beings are basically good, so I think all utopian movements are doomed to fail, but I am interested in them."[2]

Criticism

She has written critical studies of Iris Murdoch, who was a friend, mentor and a significant influence on her own writing. In those books and other works, Byatt alludes to, and builds upon, themes from Romantic and Victorian literature.[4] She conceives of fantasy as an alternative to, rather than an escape from, everyday life, and it is often difficult to tell when the fantastic in her work actually represents the eruption of psychosis. "In my work", she notes "writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers." At the same time, she is very critical of New Criticism and gives primacy to the Creative Act and the Writer in her own criticism. [2]

Posession : A Romance

Possession (1990) parallels the emerging relationship of two contemporary academics with the hitherto undocumented love affair of two (fictional) nineteenth century poets, whom they are researching. It contains hilarious send-ups of beleagured academic critics of all theoretical persuasions, specially New Criticism & Feminist Criticism. Above all, it contains masterly textual inter-polations in the form of Victorian-era Poetry & Fairy Tales, allegedly written by the fictional poets Henry Ash & Isabella Mott. It ends with the male protagonist considering giving up academic criticism for the actual writing of poetry, in response to his being in love, mirroring Byatt's up-holding of the Creative Act in primacy over the Critical Act, and relationships above the pursuit of knowledge. It has been called "one of the most important novels of the 20th Century". <Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). Byatt was awarded a CBE in 1990 and the DBE in 1999.

Member of

  • 1974–77 Social Effects of Television Advisory Group BBC
  • 1977–82 Associate of Newnham College, Cambridge
  • 1978–84 Board of Communications and Cultural Studies, CNAA
  • 1985–87 Board of Creative and Performing Arts, CNAA
  • 1987–88 Kingman Committee of Inquiry into the teaching of English Language, (Department of Education and Science)
  • 1984–88 Management Committee, Society of Authors, (Deputy Chairman, 1986, Chairman, 1986–88);
  • 1993–98 Board, British Council, (Member of Literature Advisory Panel, 1990–98).

Prizes and awards

Works

References

  1. ^ The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. 5 January 2008. The Times. Retrieved on 2010-02-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference guardian.co.uk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Sir Ian Byatt biog
  4. ^ a b c d e Contemporary Authors website.
  5. ^ A.S. Byatt Recipient of the 2009 Blue Metropolis Literary Grand Prix
  • Official website of A. S. Byatt
  • Template:Contemporary writers
  • A. S. Byatt at the Internet Book List
  • Works by A. S. Byatt at Open Library
  • Philip Hensher (Fall 2001). "A. S. Byatt, The Art of Fiction No. 168". Paris Review.
  • Cerles Review Interview (2003). Accessed 2010-09-11
  • "A Novelist Whose Fiction Comes From Real Lives". October 9, 2009 New York Times. Accessed 2010-09-11
  • A. S. Byatt reads from her book Elementals. Accessed 2010-09-11
  • Audio: including AS Byatt in conversation on the BBC World Service The Forum. Accessed 2010-09-11
  • A. S. Byatt reads from The Children's Book + interview. Accessed 2011-04-12

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