A Hermeneutical Revisit to ‘Biographic Metafiction’ through A.S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance

Abstract

A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession: A Romance has been confronting the critics and readers with several epistemological puzzles for more than two decades. The novel ostensibly offers antithetical views with regard to the prevalent understanding of what counts as knowledge, truth, and authorship. The present essay seeks to uncover the possible rationale behind such apparent inconsistencies, which involve the author’s seemingly deliberate attempt to guide our understanding of the narrative while maintaining a metafictional structure in it. Our essay explores the prospect of finding an atypical approach to solving this conundrum that Byatt’s acclaimed neo-Victorian novel presents to the readers.