[Vwoolf] Woolf and Byatt

Alice Lowe alicelowe88 at yahoo.com
Sat Aug 9 16:58:11 EDT 2014


An interesting juxtaposition of the novels. I've tracked Byatt’s references
to Woolf in several of her novels—from Still Life to The Children’s Book—usually
as a cultural marker within her characters’ milieu, a dropped name. In The
Fiction of A.S. Byatt (2000), Louise Hadley suggests that Still Life drew on
Woolf’s explorations of women’s psychological experiences using interior monologue.
She also thought Orlando influenced Biographer's Tale. 

Alice

www.aliceloweblogs.wordpress.com 



On Saturday, August 9, 2014 1:03 PM, Elisa Sparks <SPARKS at clemson.edu> wrote:
  


Just finished A.S. Byatt's first novel, Shadow of the Sun, a sad rather dark book. Was thinking how interesting it would be to juxtapose it to Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, also about the thwarting of a young girl's initiation into maturity. The next Byatt novel is The Game, about two sisters whose intersecting manipulations of fiction and reality ruin their lives...some similar themes to Woolf's sunnier second novel, Night and Day.  This produced the following intriguing little chart (of course I have every hope that Byatt produces another few novels, which will destroy this fearful symmetry.)  And yes, I do know exactly how much Byatt would detest this comparison. Nevertheless, would love to start a reader's group of some kind to plot through these pairings.  Was thinking at least a month per pair.  Anyone interested?  Can be long-distance.   
 
I am currently contemplating another Woolf/O’Keeffe paper for next year’s conference, but it strikes me that this could turn into a panel.  Or perhaps a workshop. 
Elisa 
 
 
A.S. Byatt: Novels/ Virginia Woolf : Novels 
 
1964    The Shadow of the Sun/1915     The Voyage Out 
1967    The Game/ 1919     Night and Day 
1978    The Virgin in the Garden/1922     Jacob’s Room 
1985     Still Life/ 1925     Mrs. Dalloway 
1990     Possession: A Romance/1927    To the Lighthouse 
1997     Babel Tower/ 1928     Orlando 
2000     The Biographer's Tale/  1933     Flush 
2002    A Whistling Woman/1931     The Waves 
2009    The Children's Book/  1937     The Years 
2011    Ragnarok: The End of the Gods1941   Between the Acts   
_______________________________________________
Vwoolf mailing list
Vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu
https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/vwoolf
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20140809/e8bf0fa9/attachment.html>


More information about the Vwoolf mailing list