Recognition of identity is also related to gender in Possession: A Romance, in which two scholars pursue an affair held by long-dead poets to discover truths about their work and themselves. Acutely aware of the manner in which text creates meaning, and in which the intellectualization of sexuality (and the sexualization of intellectuality), the relationship between the modern scholars is as fraught with complications as the century-old relationship between the poets they are studying. In the nineteenth century, however, explicit social rules made certain behaviors unacceptable and drew boundaries around the two genders. In the modern era, these boundaries are not explicitly imposed but rather are more subtle and insidious yet just as influential. Maud, the female scholar and half of the pair of erstwhile lovers, has accepted...

Both characters wish to transcend these gender-specific bounds and to simply come together in an untainted meeting of pure sexual experience and joy. There is little hope of them accomplishing this until the end.
Both Lessing and Bryatt explore gender in largely similar if very different ways. Through this, an understanding of the development of gender perspectives and sexuality throughout the latter half of the twentieth century can be formed. Though not complete, the picture painted by these two novels gives much room for further consideration.