Inherit And Surpass The Traditional Growth Novel Model

First of all,Byatt inherited the tradition of focusing on the growing characters in the traditional bildungsroman.According to the different growth results,the growth subjects in this book can be divided into the following three categories: self-selection characters,who through the inheritance or rebellion against tradition,choose their own development path,and finally complete the growth of self-value construction;struggling-failed characters,who struggle between the artistic tradition and the historical reality,and finally lose themselves into the desperate growth;the characters who get out of the predicament and regain the hope,that is,swing in the tradition and reality,make the wrong choice or fall into the dilemma,eventually getting rid of the shadows of the past and rebuild their hopes.Typical representatives of these three types of growers are Philip and Dorothy,Tom and Florence.The writer is mainly composed of four families engaged in art work,and describes in detail the growth process of the children of the four families from childhood to the adult phase and the personal choice of different characters.There are three narrative levels of the post-Victorian era in The Children's Book,which makes the growth theme appear as the leading part,revealing the individual growing process and the dynamic background behind it.In terms of social environment,the writer takes the real historical events as the main content,adopts the narrative style of academic papers and annals,runs through the whole text in a objective and concise third-person whole perspective,which becomes the macro-controller of the life path of the novel growth.At the same time,pretending to be art workers in four large families,Byatt embeded traditional art forms such as fairy tales and dramas in the text,like scattered pearls,which echoing with the development of the main characters of the story.In the "small environment" of individual growth,the influence of the guide is also indispensable.Froude to Philip,Oliver to Dorothy,Oliver to Tom,Dorothy and Griselda,those four relationship reflect the different guides in the process of children's growth.There are different functions that the same guide person bears for different characters and multiple guides provide the stage guidance to the same character in the process of growth.Through the reconstruction of social history,the exploration of the form of "story in the story" and the diversified construction of the guide,Byatt achieved the transcendence of traditional bildungsroman.In terms of the structure of the novel,Byatt divided the book into four parts: the beginning,the golden age,the silver age and the leaden age,which follow the linear narrative structure of the growth novel tradition.But different from traditional bildungsroman,in the process of narrative,Byatt selected a number of landmark time nodes.Through the detailed description of these landmark events,they became the key points of the timeline,showing the turning point and cross section in the development process of the growth characters.At the same time,the misplacement of historical time and narrative time in the works makes the narrative rhythm of the novel undergo a slow-to-fast change,showing the tragic color of the lost and lost value of the paradise,highlighting the important position of the golden age in the history of children's growth.Through careful selection of time nodes and adjustments in narrative rhythm,Byatt achieved breakthroughs and innovations on traditional narratives.