Defending “Identity and the Writer”: A. S. Byatt’s Delineation of the Proper “Function of Criticism at the Present Time”

Ann Marie Adams

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2008

Abstract

Extending Louise Yelin’s study of Possession, the author argues that all of A. S. Byatt’s work is marked by a “return of the Arnoldian repressed” (40). More specifically, she claims that Byatt uses a refigured Arnoldian humanism to critique postwar literary criticism. Through repeatedly privileging the role of the author and diminishing the power of the critic, Byatt restores what she believes to be the proper “Function of Criticism at the Present Time.”

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