Growth, An Unending Project

"Der Bildungsroman"was born in Europe,in a special historical context of the transformation from medieval to the modern industrial society.It reflects the enormous social and cultural changes in the 18th century, the rise of modern consciousness and the desire of middle-class to the right of speaking. Because of its profound connection to modernity, it possessess a forward-looking force.Not only embodies it the intense fight between the thousands years-tradition of Europe and the process of modernization,but it also demonstrates the the all-round victory of the enlightenment thinking and the modernity discourse against the theological discourse.However, the constant protests and the deep divisions inside the modernity , the great tension between the enlightenment modernity and aesthetic modernity,triggered the development of this genre of novel as well.The object of this study is the most famous novel "Der Grüne Heinrich",which was written by a 19th century Swiss German writer,Gottfried Keller (1819-1890).The difference between this work and the traditional Bildungsroman is that, it did not provide a happy ending ,in which the growth has already been achived, but it attached importance to the the process of the hero's growth, in which every incident of the life make a big impact on his inner world,as well as a series of conflicts between the traditional ideology of swiss and german modernization.All of which outlines a broader world in the sence of existence --- that is a world,wich refuses to take a one-side,rational view to reflect the world. Through its subversion of traditional form, and the criticism of the enlightenment modernity, Bildungsroman began to break the rigid traditional model in the new historical context,and illustrates the diversity of cultural concepts and value patterns.This paper wants to take a analysis on the text of "Der Grüne Heinrich".With the retrospectition of the ideological context, and the excavation of the differences between it and the traditional Bildungsroman, the paper will explain that, as a complicated syntheses,which is full of tension and conflicts,this work comprises of the tradition,the reality and the future. And then this stuy will argue out that the value of growth stays in the the unfinished openness and the rich possibility,the purpose of this kind of analysis is to criticize the vision of Enlightenment modernity,which is one-sided,unified,teleological.Hope this study will advance the contemporary understanding of the Bildungsroman,which exits as a historical and literary genre.