Criticism And Vision Under Modern Crisis The Idea Of Community In A.S. Byatt’s The Children’s Book

A.S.Byatt has been well acknowledged as a prestigious modern novelist.In the past three decades many scholars have studied her work from such perspectives as feminism,postmodern narrative strategy,and artistic techniques and so on.However,they have overlooked Byatt’s great concern for the connections between art and life,self and the other,and individual and society.These connections evolve into common beliefs and values which function as the fundamental basis for the community building.Therefore,this thesis proposes to examine A.S.Byatt’s idea of community in The Children’s Book by exploring the modern crisis in the transition of the communities based on blood and place,as well as the possible building of an ideal community grounded on the common spiritual faith and pursuit.Apart from the introduction and the conclusion,there are three chapters in the main body of this thesis.The first chapter mainly focuses on the decadence of the original community by blood in the novel under the control of maternal authority and the weakening of family ethics.In the disintegrating process of the kinship-based community,the children in the two families(“Todefright” and “Purchase House”)go through the process of confusion,waking up,and the final pursuit of individual identity.The second chapter focuses on the crisis of the community of place outside the family.Based on Raymond Williams’ s notion of “rural community” and the “structure of feeling”,this chapter explores the breakup of the organic rural community with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization.The deteriorating handicraft-based economy,widening class division,moral decline and the worsening rural environment all bring critical crisis to the local community.The last chapter examines Byatt’s vision of community of spirit bound by such relationships as friendship and fellowship and analyzes the construction of the community of spirit through the inheritance in craft arts and the mutual understanding from friends.Then with the help of common culture the community of spirit will grow into a larger scale of community influencing more common people’s minds,thus saving them out of the modern crisis caused by interpersonal alienation and the conflicts between man and nature.