Mixing Colors, Making Designs: A. S. Byatt's "Racine and the Tablecloth, " "Rose-Coloured Teacups, " and "Sugar". Issue 3 (27th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stewart, Jack
• Is Part Of: Critique. Volume 58:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 237
• Page End: 247
• Publication Date: 2017-05-27
• Subjects: A. S. Byatt -- design -- pattern -- color -- creativity; Fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Letterkunde; Engels; Electronic journals; 809.304
• DOI: 10.1080/00111619.2016.1211602
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0011-1619

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Themes of intellectual design, decorative pattern, color stimulus, visual art, and creativity form the framework of A. S. Byatt's Sugar and Other Stories . In "Racine and the Tablecloth, " "Rose-Coloured Teacups, " and "Sugar, " Byatt translates emotion, intellect, sense, and memory into a language of "fictionalized autobiography" that self-reflexively sheds light on her creative development. The dramatic language of Racine provides a model of intellectual design that contrasts with the embroidered pattern of a tablecloth. A retrospective vision of rose-colored teacups on a tablecloth signifies Victorian décor, implicitly compared with a still life by Matisse (cover illustration). The mixed colors of molten sugar awaken a child's aesthetic sense in a way later associated with Van Gogh's paintings and ekphrastically reflected in the novel Still Life . The three stories examined reveal important aspects of Byatt's fictional art and aesthetic values.