On The Road Of Growth-Jerusalem The Golden As A Female Bildungsroman

Margaret Drabble (1939-) is a distinguished British writer with a humanistic concern about womenconditions, especially those of educated women. By depicting their subtle and tortuous emotionalexperience and revealing their repression and rebellion, Drabble has been actively exploring and seekingfor the spiritual breakout for those women in plights.Jerusalem the Golden, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Book Prize, is one of Drabble’sgreat works. Repressed by her mother and the traditions in her hometown, Northam, Clara, the protagonist,left for London to pursue her freedom and ideal homeland. Studies of the past mainly center on feminist,mother images, as well as moral and ethical reflection. While from the aspect of plotline, Jerusalem theGolden is a clear female Bildungroman. Clara is a girl with rebellious spirit, her inner impulse of unwillingto submit to any forces and constraints prompts her to get rid of them and gains her own life philosophyand freedom and finally realize self-identity. Through the analysis of Clara’s Bildung from the perspectiveof female Bildungroman, this thesis will prove Jerusalem the Golden to be a typical female Bildungsroman.This thesis is composed of five parts. Chapter one introduces Drabble and Jerusalem the Golden.Chapter two puts forward the perspective of the Bildungsroman and female Bildungsroman. Chapter threeelaborates Clara’s growing progress. Chapter four illustrates Jerusalem the Golden.as a femaleBildungsroman in three aspects. Chapter five summarizes the themes of the thesis and emphasizes itsconcern on the growth of not only the heroine, Clara, but also the growth of all young women in plights.Besides, the open-ending of the novel promotes the Bildung of the heroine as well as the readers.