부산대학교 도서관

This paper attempts to examine the popularization of A. S. Byatt’s Possession, the 1990 Booker-Prize winning novel, by following the ‘collecting’ process based on the detective narrative. Possession begins with the two letters which Henry Ash sent to Christabel LaMotte in the Victorian age and which were subsequently discovered by Roland Mitchell, a modern scholar. Along with Maud Baily who works on LaMotte, Roland collects relative materials for finding out the connections between Ash and LaMotte. Given the collection of heritage, James Clifford argues there can exist obsessed collectors and collectors with healthy minds. As healthy collectors, Roland and Maud take the opportunity to develop their self-esteem and form their identity in the process of their collecting. In contrast, English professor Blackcadder and American professor Cropper show an obsessed approach towards collecting English heritage, such as the letters between Ash and LaMotte, which consequently makes all the people who are concerned about their own interests and purposes join the grave robbery of Ash. Here, it is interesting for Byatt to wrap up the accident with a Shakespearean saying, ‘All’s well that ends well,’ after all the conflicts and problems, whether legal or illegal. In addition, Byatt creates an unfinished ending of Possession with “Postscript 1868,” encouraging readers to have more curiosity by letting them think of their own endings about the relationship of Roland and Maud. With this approach, Byatt’s Possession can be read as one of the contemporary commercial literary novels which are associated with potential readership.