Abstract—This paper aims at exploring A. S. Byatt’s The Virgin in the Garden (1978), the first volume of “Frederica Quartet,” with close examination of the mythical elements in the novel and psychoanalytical views on the formative process of Frederica’s rite of passage. This paper attempts to apply mythical and psychoanalytical approaches in analyzing the motives and mental influences of Frederica’s time on her. The result shows that, in the novel, the rite of passage is closely connected with the ritual and regeneration of the nation on the outside and the collection of personal identity (as represented by the condition of “ego” in psychoanalysis) on the inside.
Index Terms—A. S. Byatt (1936-), Eliade, Mircea (1907-86), Lacan, Jacques (1901-81), The Virgin in the Garden (1978).
Yifan Lee is with the Foreign Languages and Literature Department, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan R.O.C. (e-mail: Yifanlee32@gmail.com).
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Cite:Yifan Lee, "Frederica Potter’s Ritual and Regeneration in A. S. Byatt’s The Virgin in the Garden," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 10-13, 2016.