Diptych A. S. Byatt “Angels and Insects” as a sample of Postmodern Victorianа

Abstract

Attention in this research is focused on the A. S. Byatt’s diptych “Angels and Insects”. The article analyses the specifics of the Victorian code functioning in the diptych, which forms the basis of the original Victoriana of a modern British novelist. “Angels and Insects” is chosen as a special and demonstrative example of the reception and interpretation of the Victorian era’s cultural, historical and artistic heritage by modern British writers, and “Angels and Insects” demonstrates a productive dialogue with Victorianism and, at the same time, conceptual shifts in its understanding and highlighting of the problems of Victorian life that were on the margins of Victorian narratives. Since the Victorian code defines the diptych’s architectonics, then the purpose of the article is a study of the Victorian code features and peculiarities of its representation in the diptych “Angels and Insects” by A. S. Byatt. In the article we used such methods as hystorical-literary and historical-cultural, as well as elements of gender analysis method.
A. S. Byatt reproduces the Victorian era with the help of stylization and pastiche. The atmosphere of Victorianism is created through the depiction of a vivid panorama of the Victorian: key Victorian ideological and philosophical trends and antinomies, scientific and religious controversies, Victorian values, a special Victorian lifestyle, estates and interiors, traditions and customs, the distribution of male and female roles in society and the family, the circle of everyday interests and leisure.
At the same time, Victorianism is reinterpreted as postmodern vision and with the help of a postmodern writing strategy. A. S. Byatt draws attention to what was hushed up and marginalized in Victorian times, raising the topics of incestuous and homosexual relationships, creating different types of Victorian women, including images of the new Victorian woman (Matty Crompton, Emily Tennison): intelligent, talented, and independent. A. S. Byatt updates the classic realistic Victorian novel’s tradition (dating events and specific names of action’s places, realistic details of the material world, portraits and landscapes), but does so in a language accessible to the modern reader. The identification of the Victorian code key components in the diptych constitutes the originality of the study. The analysis of the Victorian code in “Angels and Insects” makes possible to state that there is a “Victorian text” in its both novellas. All of the above gives reason to conclude that “Angels and Insects” can be considered an original artistic encyclopedia of Victorianism.