A Study On African-American Bildungsroman In The20^th Century

"Growth" is higher frequency in the African American literature, we take "native son","the invisible man","song of Solomon" three novels as the research object with reference to the western growth novel theories in the background of before and after the second world war by means of analyzing three main characters’growth mode, growth dilemma, growth connotation and the significance of growth to summarize three growth type of the20th century African-American literature:Bildung of "the black"—"type of failure growth with the violence against violence, Bildung of "the new black"—confused-growth type, Bildung of the "People"-returned-growth type. The three types of the growth embody and interpret the change of the20th African-American Bildungsroman, so we can grasp African-American literature development.This paper is divided into three parts and subdivided into five chapters. The introduction defines the growth novel, and evaluates the western cultural tradition, and introduces the thread of the African-American growth novel, which establishes the theoretical basis for the concrete analysis below.The second paper to the fourth chapter is the main part of the thesis. We draw the outline of the20th century African-American bildungsroman process of development with three department and representative works as an example. The second chapter takes Richard Wright’s "native son" as an example by analyzing the growth of the hero and the problems of life process to summarize the characteristics of the growth of the "black". The hero fined the meaning of existence in the resistance against society, but he ultimately grows to failure by lack of the power of growth drive. In the third chapter take Ralph Ellison’s "invisible man" for example by analyzing the hero from the "American dream" of disillusion and the search for identity to reveal the process of spiritual growth. Based on this, in comparison to the growth of the "black", for the "new black" growth, the hero’s self and of social cognitive get further, but in the existing knowledge he does not find a way, his growth is in the road. The fourth chapter take Tony Morrison’s "song of Solomon" as an example by analyzing the hero’s growth process, and leader’ help and inner spirit of the transformation world. based on this, in comparison to the growth of the "new black", this paper reveals the "people" growth characteristics, the hero hold more broad view after a switch in the values of the world,he can learn the power of growth from black traditional culture, finally complete growth in the lead the help.The ending will have overall assurance of the three works to summarize three growth types of characteristics and development change to reveal uniqueness of the novel about the20th century African growth.