Woman’s Celibacy：Power or Alienation? Feminist Concerns in A.S. Byatt’s Quartet

摘要

As one of the most famous contemporary British women novelists, A.S. Byatt depicts the true situation of women in her“Frederica Quartet”. The quartet involves some feminist issues such as marriage and celibacy, female power and women ’s alienation. In the quartet, Byatt associates the mythical virgin images to the women figures in real life, and contemplates possible ways for women to survive and keep female power in a male-dominated society. It makes a detailed analysis on the recurring vir⁃gin images and the characterization of female characters in the quartet, aiming to analyze the theme of Byatt ’s quartet and reveal her feminist concerns.