1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910590047203321

Autore

Bibby Leanne

Titolo

A. S. Byatt and Intellectual Women : Fictions, Histories, Myths / / by Leanne Bibby

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2022

ISBN

9783031086717

3031086716

Edizione

[1st ed. 2022.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (242 pages)

Collana

Palgrave Studies in Contemporary Women’s Writing, , 2523-8159

Disciplina

305.4

823.914

Soggetti

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Literature, Modern - 21st century

Literature - Philosophy

Feminism and literature

Intellectual life - History

Prose literature

Contemporary Literature

Feminist Literary Theory

Intellectual History

Narrative Text and Prose

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1 Introduction -- 2 Cultural Histories of the Intellectual: From Patriarchal Myth to Feminist Mythopoeia -- 3 A. S. Byatt: Creating the Intellectual Woman -- 4 Minds and Bodies -- 5 Intellectuals and Sexual Specificity -- 6 Women Intellectuals, Private Intellectuals? -- 7 Future Histories of Intellectual Women -- 8 Afterword: Mythopoeia: Beyond Torment.

Sommario/riassunto

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