The Girl Who Walked On Air’s Inheritance Of And Deviation From The Victorian Bildungsroman

Emma Carroll is an English teacher of middle school in Somerset.She has graduated with honors from Bath Spa University’s MA in Writing For Young People.At the same time,Emma Carroll is a great British writer for children.Being an English teacher has helped her to learn children’s reading habits.The Girl Who Walked on Air(abbreviated as The Girl)is Emma’s second work,describing the story of a little girl Louie who has grown up in a circus and pursues her dream with persistence and endeavor.The novel has been nominated for the 2015 Carnegie Medal.The Girl has been published in July 2014.So far,little research has been done about this novel in China.Professor Wang Qingyong is the first to translate the novel into Chinese.And in June 2016,the Chinese translation is published in China.After its publication,the novel gradually attracts attention from readers and critics.This paper will start from the perspective of Bildungsroman,and analyze The Girl’s inheritance of and deviation from the Victorian Bildungsroman in comparison with three representative works of Victorian Bildungsroman(Tess of the D’Urbervilles,Oliver Twist,The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn),with the aim to help readers have a better and deep understanding of the novel.The thesis consists of four parts.The introduction part mainly introduces the author Emma Carroll and her work The Girl,and the research status of the novel both at home and abroad.What’s more,this part will explain what the Bildungroman is as well as the relationship between The Girl and Bildungsroman.The introduction part paves the way for the whole paper,and reviews the development of Bildungsroman,expounding the connotation and traditional narrative mode of Bildungsroman.The paper believes that The Girl conforms to the traditional narrative pattern of Bildungsroman: the young protagonist leaves his/her home to a strange place.Suffered from various difficulties and hardships,the protagonist gradually becomes maturer and braver.The second part explores the novel’s inheritance of the traditional Bildungsroman,mainly from five aspects: 1)the inheritance of traditional narrative mode: the growth process of Louie conformed to the traditional narrative pattern of Bildungsroman: innocence—temptation—leaving home—confusion—ordeal—loss of innocence—epiphany—recognition of life and identity;2)the inheritance of individual and social identity seeking: Louie left homeland in order to find her proper place in the society and obtained her freedom and recognition;3)the inheritance of the expression of feminism: both Louie and her mother were controlled and oppressed by men under the patriarchal society;4)the inheritance of the contrast between the positive and negative characters: the different personalities of Mr Chipchase and Mr Wellbeloved shaped an obvious contrast,both of them had played an important part in Louie’s growth;5)the inheritance of the description and criticism of realism: capitalism developed rapidly in the Victorian period,and the gap between the rich and the poor was great.The descriptions of circus’ s performers revealed their hardship and poverty in daily life.The third part explores the novel’s deviation from the traditional Bildungsroman,for example: 1)the deviation from narrative structure: the protagonists in traditional Bildungsroman were always forced to flee by the circumstance,but Louie left her homeland on her own will in order to pursue her dream;2)the deviation from woman’s identity: in the patriarchal society,women were regarded as the accessories of men,but Louie bravely challenged and won her equality with male performers;3)the deviation from self-construction: the traditional protagonists were always helped by one or more kind people,Louie was different from them,she kept independent in the way of growth all the time;4)the deviation from language style: in traditional Bildungsroman,authors used acrid and ironic words to depict lower class’ s poor life.The Girl kept easy and comprehensible sentences to show poor conditions in that period;5)the deviation from theme expression: this novel had little words to criticize and satirize the social reality but attached great importance to the status of the dream,emphasizing the theme of the persistence of dream.The fourth part summarizes the whole paper.On the one hand,The Girl is a typical Bildungsroman,it conforms to the traditional narrative mode of Bildungsroman.On the other hand,The Girl is different from the traditional Bildungsroman,it has unique modern characteristics.The novel is easily understood,and every plot is closely connected.The novel deviates on the basis of the tradition,and it also expresses the tradition in the deviation.With the unique charm,the novel deeply attracts the readers.