Volume-XII, Issue-III, May 2026 |
Beyond Biography: Knowing the Self through Scientific Knowledge and Fictional Storytelling in A. S. Byatt’s The Biographer’s Tale Dr. Harwinder Kaur, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kurukshetra University, Thanesar, Haryana, India |
Received: 15.05.2026 | Accepted: 29.05.2026 | Published Online: 31.05.2026 | Page No: 139-146 | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.12.issue.03W.330 | |||||||
ABSTRACT | ||
The study aims to explore the skillful blending of science, fiction, reality and past in A. S. Byatt’s novel The Biographer’s Tale. The novel traces the research journey of Phineas Nanson, who, frustrated with the dull and boring abstract postmodern theories, longs for a life grounded in physical reality. His biographical research for his subject leads him to grapple with various scientific endeavours and a long chain of interconnected texts, eventually making him aware of his own identity in the process. The study examines how Phineas’s longing for obtaining the objective knowledge of the natural world, which is outside the world of abstract theories, brings the reader closer to the interdependence among language, culture and natural phenomena where the animals, plants, places and all other natural elements acquire their meaning and symbolic significance in language and culture. It highlights Byatt’s belief in linguistic adequacies to denote things and the blurring boundaries between the scientific methodology and fictional creativity. | ||
Keywords: Fiction, reality, nature, science, biography, postmodernism |