From Intertextuality to Monstrosity; The Representation of the Impact of Cultural Signs on Identity in A.S Byatt’s Medusa’s Ankles

In order to serve the intended purpose, Intertextual relationships within a literary work create arich web of associations. A.S Byatt’s collection of short stories; The Matisse stories, is repletewith examples of such intertextual references, the most prominent one being the Matisse’spainting. In Medusa’s ankle , the first story of this collection, an intricate fabric ofintertextuality is fashioned through the short story’s relation to other cultural texts such aspaintings or pictures or even decorations of the setting. However, artistic aestheticism is not thesole reason for creating this tangled web. This article aims to show that these various culturaltexts serve to manufacture the very identity of the protagonist of the story and even the culturalidentity of the whole society at large. By making a masterly use of these intertextualrelationships, Byatt shows us that by generating literary and non-literary means of expression,we simultaneously create the very identity of ourselves and more significantly the identity of oursociety.

Keywords:

A.S Byatt , Intertextuality , Cultural identity , Identity , Matisse