On Children’s Aesthetic Growth In The Children’s Book

Anthony Susan Byatt’s new Victorian novel The Children’s Book is her most famous work since the publishment of Possession.The Children’s Book unfolds the stories of the children in four art families and then depicts the growth of these children from 1895 to the end of World War I.This book is full of artistic elements with many descriptions of historical,cultural,and political events and characters,as well as artistic creations such as poetry,fairy tales,puppetry,and ceramic production.This thesis focuses on aesthetic growth of children in the novel.It illustrates that children’s aesthetic growth is achieved by realizing the growth of children’s particularities through their everyday aesthetic experience,natural aesthetic experience,and death aesthetic experience,and then constructing their individualities.The first chapter analyzes the growth and changes of children through artistic experience,social contact,and emotional relationship in their everyday life.In this condition,children gain an awareness of their personality through emotional experience,interpersonal relationship construction,and communication with the outside world,allowing them to become independent individuals,form new communities,and construct a children-centered real world.The second chapter argues that children’s aesthetic growth is rooted in the natural environment.The children in the novel are growing up during a time of great upheaval in art,politics,and economics.Their growth is marked by the struggle between nature and civilization,nature and art,and their decisions in this conflict help shape their individualities.The third chapter explores children’s experiences of life.The children in the novel confront death,warfare,and a chaotic and disordered world.Through their encounters with death in reality and their creative imaginations,children experience the extremes of life,form their own identities,and complete the transition from childhood to adulthood.In conclusion,Byatt presents many works of art and different art forms in The Children’s Book.The children’s aesthetic growth originated from the artistic environment and their everyday aesthetic experience.Through the portrayal of children’s groups,the restoration of historical context,and the supplement of art topics in one book,Byatt contributes to help readers pay more attention to the relationship between aesthetics and children and also makes the topic of bildungsroman richer.Meanwhile,public awareness of children’s development is also more comprehensive.