“Self-conscious poetic Justice in A. S. Byatt's Possession, a Romance”
Résumé
The notion of poetic justice suggests a narrative ethics embodied in the conclusion and, at the same time, it places this conclusion in the fictional world, and confines its validity to the realm of imagination. A similar ambivalence lies at the heart of Byatt's writing which she calls ‘self-conscious realism’. This article explores how and to what end A. S. Byatt's ‘self-conscious realism’ finds an outlet in self-conscious poetic justice in Possession, a Romance: having recourse to poetic justice is a deliberate narrative choice, and Byatt flaunts this choice from beginning to end, from the genre of the novel to its characters' ultimate fates. We initially study how poetic justice, even if fully enacted only at the end of a novel, is in fact programmed from the outset. Secondly, we consider if, in the context of a neo-Victorian novel like Possession, poetic justice participates in ‘re-righting’ (Zabus) the past. We subsequently examine the ethics of poetic justice at work in Possession.