- Title Pages
- Series editor's preface
- Acknowledgements
- Copyright acknowledgements
- A. S. Byatt: biographical outline
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Fathers, sisters and the anxiety of influence: <i>The Shadow of the Sun</i> and <i>The Game</i>
- 3 Writing the contemporary: <i>The Virgin in the Garden</i> and <i>Still Life</i>
- 4 Two cultures: <i>Babel Tower</i> and <i>A Whistling Woman</i>
- 5 Tradition and transformation: <i>Possession</i> and fairytales
- 6 The dark side of the tale: <i>The Children's Book</i>, <i>The Biographer's Tale</i> and <i>Angels and Insects</i>
- 7 Critical storytelling: peopling the paper house
- Bibliography
- I. Novels and collected short fiction by A. S. Byatt (First UK editions only)
- II. Uncollected short fiction by A. S. Byatt (First date and place of publication only)
- III. Collected non-fiction by A. S. Byatt (First UK edition only)
- IV. Selected uncollected non-fiction by A. S. Byatt (excludes journalism, reviews, art criticism and broadcasts except pieces directly quoted in this volume)
- V. Books edited by A. S. Byatt
- VI. Selected interviews with A. S. Byatt
- VII. Selected reviews of A. S. Byatt's fiction
- VIII. Selected criticism of A. S. Byatt's fiction
- IX. Other works cited
- Index
Two cultures: Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman
Two cultures: Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman
- Chapter:
- (p.63) 4 Two cultures: Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman
- Source:
- A.S. Byatt
- Author(s):
Alexa Alfer
Amy J. Edwards de Campos
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
This chapter examines the formal and thematic (dis)continuities between the earlier and later Quartet novels. It studies the prism of Byatt's involvement with modern notions of the breakdown and fragmentation of language in Babel Tower and her fictional considerations of the narratives of science in A Whistling Woman. This chapter determines that her later fictions usually study the conceptual pitfalls and possibilities of ways of world-making across the ‘Two Cultures’ divide.
Keywords: (dis)continuities, Quartet novels, fragmentation of language, fictional considerations, narratives of science, world-making, Two Cultures divide
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- Title Pages
- Series editor's preface
- Acknowledgements
- Copyright acknowledgements
- A. S. Byatt: biographical outline
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Fathers, sisters and the anxiety of influence: <i>The Shadow of the Sun</i> and <i>The Game</i>
- 3 Writing the contemporary: <i>The Virgin in the Garden</i> and <i>Still Life</i>
- 4 Two cultures: <i>Babel Tower</i> and <i>A Whistling Woman</i>
- 5 Tradition and transformation: <i>Possession</i> and fairytales
- 6 The dark side of the tale: <i>The Children's Book</i>, <i>The Biographer's Tale</i> and <i>Angels and Insects</i>
- 7 Critical storytelling: peopling the paper house
- Bibliography
- I. Novels and collected short fiction by A. S. Byatt (First UK editions only)
- II. Uncollected short fiction by A. S. Byatt (First date and place of publication only)
- III. Collected non-fiction by A. S. Byatt (First UK edition only)
- IV. Selected uncollected non-fiction by A. S. Byatt (excludes journalism, reviews, art criticism and broadcasts except pieces directly quoted in this volume)
- V. Books edited by A. S. Byatt
- VI. Selected interviews with A. S. Byatt
- VII. Selected reviews of A. S. Byatt's fiction
- VIII. Selected criticism of A. S. Byatt's fiction
- IX. Other works cited
- Index
