“Mocking Eternities”: Writing Beyond the Ending of Possession, or A.S. Byatt’s Intersections between Academia, Literary Criticism, and Fiction

In 1995, a two-page-long letter signed by Professor Maud Michell-Bailey – which furthermore enclosed two original poems by Christabel LaMotte – prefaced a special edition on women poets in the academic journal Victorian Poetry. The letter and poems invite a critical return to Possession, since they are a complex game in which made-up characters come to life and actual people are fictionalized. They also raise significant theoretical issues while appearing to break free from the limitations imposed by what Victorian Poetry editor Linda Hughes has correctly described as “overdetermined readings, simplification, distortion” (6). In doing so, they masterfully create a parodic and intertextual dialogue in an inverted mirror game that blurs the lines between the real and the imagined and invites the reader to engage in an active participation. When combined, Maud’s letter and LaMotte’s poems offer an intriguing look at the fruitful fusion of A.S. Byatt's critical and literary imagination. Therefore, this article explores Byatt’s intersections between academia, literary criticism, and fiction by analysing her metafictional discourse on fictional Victorian poems vis-à-vis the real contemporary academic journal in which they were published.