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The Quest for a Female Identity in Historical Novels by British Women Writers

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The Quest for a Female Identity in Historical Novels by British Women Writers „My sense of my own identity is bound up with the past“ - The Quest for a Female Identity in Historical Novels by British Women Writers: Penelope Lively, Margaret Drabble, A.S. Byatt, Esther Freud Dissertation zur Erlangung des philosophischen Doktorgrades an der Philosophischen Fakultät der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen vorgelegt von Jessica Koch aus Roth Göttingen 2012 Danksagung Von den Anfängen dieser Arbeit bis hin zu ihrer Veröffentlichung war es ein langer Weg. Bei all den Personen, die mich hierbei tatkräftig unterstützt und über die Jahre hinweg stets begleitet haben, möchte ich mich herzlich bedanken. Besonderer Dank gilt dabei meinen Eltern Heidi und Hans-Dieter Koch, die immer an mich geglaubt haben. Ohne sie und ihre Unterstützung wäre diese Arbeit gar nicht erst möglich gewesen. Bedanken möchte ich mich auch bei Frau Prof. Dr. Brigitte Glaser, die meine Dissertation nicht nur betreut hat, sondern mir auch zahlreiche hilfreiche und zugleich inspirierende Denkanstöße gegeben hat. Ferner möchte ich auch Frau Prof. Dr. Barbara Schaff für ihre freundliche Übernahme der Zweitkorrektur meinen Dank aussprechen. Gewidmet ist diese Schrift schließlich meinen Großeltern, die die Fertigstellung leider nicht mehr erleben konnten. Roth, im Februar 2014 Jessica Koch “Only connect.” In loving memory of my grandparents. 1 Table of Contents List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................... 3 1. “My sense of my own identity is bound up with the past” – The Quest for a Female Identity in Historical Novels by Women .................................................................................................................. 4 2. Historiography and Literature – Science versus Imagination ........................................................... 9 2.1 “Perhaps history is just story-telling“ ................................................................................................ 9 2.2 The Development of the Historical Novel and its Rise in the 19th Century ..................................... 15 2.3 The 20th Century Historical Novel .................................................................................................... 18 3. Silenced Voices and Hidden Histories – Historical Writing from the Margins ............................... 24 3.1 Public and Private History – The Integration of Women into History ............................................. 26 3.2 The Quest for Identity in Historical Writing – The Female Historical Bildungsroman .................... 29 4. Penelope Lively – A Passion for Literature and History .................................................................. 33 4.1 Moon Tiger ...................................................................................................................................... 35 4.1.1 Moon Tiger as Historiographic Metafiction ................................................................................. 36 4.1.1.1 Public and Private History in Moon Tiger .................................................................................. 38 4.1.1.1.1 Historiography versus Historical Fiction – “True Stories and the Facts in Fiction” ................ 43 4.1.1.2 History and Her/Story in Moon Tiger ........................................................................................ 47 4.1.2 Moon Tiger as Historical Bildungsroman...................................................................................... 50 4.2 Making It Up .................................................................................................................................... 58 4.2.1 History as Biography – According to Penelope ............................................................................ 60 4.2.2 Making It Up as an Alternative History ........................................................................................ 64 4.2.2.1 Story complements Reality ....................................................................................................... 66 4.2.3 Re-Shaping Identity ...................................................................................................................... 69 5. Margaret Drabble – Motherhood and Feminism ............................................................................ 72 5.1 The Peppered Moth ......................................................................................................................... 79 5.1.1 The Peppered Moth as a Fictionalized Memoir ............................................................................ 81 2 5.1.1.1 (Auto-)Biography and the Novel ............................................................................................... 81 5.1.1.1.1 The Metafictional Aspect of The Peppered Moth .................................................................. 83 5.1.2 Public and Private History in The Peppered Moth ........................................................................ 87 5.1.2.1 The Feminist Aspect of The Peppered Moth ............................................................................. 91 5.1.3 The Peppered Moth as Bildungsroman – The Quest for Identity ................................................. 96 5.1.3.1 As long as one is travelling – Journeys to the Self ................................................................... 100 5.2 The Red Queen ............................................................................................................................... 106 5.2.1 History and Metafiction in The Red Queen ................................................................................ 108 5.2.1.1 History and Her/Story in The Red Queen ................................................................................ 110 5.2.1.2 The Red Queen as Historiographic Metafiction ....................................................................... 112 5.2.2 The Quest for Identity in The Red Queen ................................................................................... 115 6. A. S. Byatt – Independence and Creativity .................................................................................... 118 6.1 On Histories and Stories – The Frederica Quartet as Historical Fiction ........................................ 128 6.2 The Quest for Identity – The Frederica Quartet as Bildungsroman .............................................. 143 6.2.1 Tradition and the Individual Talent – Private History in the Frederica Quartet ........................ 144 6.2.1.1 Fashion and Identity ................................................................................................................ 147 6.2.1.2 The Link Between Past and Present – Memory and Intertextuality ....................................... 152 6.2.2 The Quest for Identity ................................................................................................................ 166 6.2.2.1 Body and/or Mind – Biological versus Intellectual Identity .................................................... 175 7. Conclusion, Excursion and Future Prospects: Liberating Women’s History and the Liberating Force of History ................................................................................................................................... 192 7.1 Esther Freud – Memory and Identity ............................................................................................ 196 7. 1.1 Family History and Identity in Summer at Gaglow .................................................................... 198 Bibliography – Primary Sources ......................................................................................................... 208 Bibliography – Secondary Sources ..................................................................................................... 209 3 List of Abbreviations The primary sources often used and extensively quoted in the following text are abbreviated as: HU Penelope Lively. A House Unlocked. MIU Penelope Lively. Making It Up. MT Penelope Lively. Moon Tiger. OJ Penelope Lively. Oleander, Jacaranda. PC Margaret Drabble. The Pattern in the Carpet – A Personal History with Jigsaws. PM Margaret Drabble. The Peppered Moth. RQ Margaret Drabble. The Red Queen. BT A.S. Byatt. Babel Tower. HS A.S. Byatt. On Histories and Stories. PoM A.S. Byatt. Passions of the Mind. SoS A.S. Byatt. The Shadow of the Sun. ST A.S. Byatt. Still Life. ViG A.S. Byatt. The Virgin in the Garden. WW A.S. Byatt. A Whistling Woman. SG Esther Freud. Summer at Gaglow. 4 1. “My sense of my own identity is bound up with the past”1 – The Quest for a Female Identity in Historical Novels by Women For too long a time women have remained in the shadows of history and only hesitantly have they eventually stepped out of their shadowy existence and into the light. This move has been encouraged by a developing feminist consciousness and was strongly demanded and put into practice by the women’s movement of the mid-twentieth century – a movement which in due course began not only to shape women’s possible future but to question and examine their past as well. Stephanie Kramer accordingly points out: “Frauen fingen an, die Objektivität der fast ausschließlich von Männern gezeigten Frauendarstellungen zu hinterfragen und diese zu revisionieren. Auf ihrer Suche nach alternativen Lebensentwürfen und Vorbildern zur eigenen Identitätsfindung haben sie überdies eine Vielzahl vergessener Frauen in das öffentliche Bewusstsein gehoben“
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