bildungsroman

In literary criticism, bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn]; German: "formation novel")^[1] or coming-of-age story is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age),^[2] and in which character change is thus extremely important.^[3] The term was coined in 1819 by philologist Karl Morgenstern in his university lectures, and later famously reprised by Wilhelm Dilthey, who legitimized it in 1870 and popularized it in 1905.^[1][4] The genre is further characterized by a number of formal, topical, and thematic features.^[5] The term coming-of-age novel is sometimes used interchangeably with Bildungsroman, but its use is usually wider and less technical.

The birth of the Bildungsroman is normally dated to the publication of Goethe’s The Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister in 1795–96.^[6] Although the Bildungsroman arose in Germany, it has had extensive influence first in Europe and later throughout the world. Thomas Carlyle translated Goethe’s novel into English, and after its publication in 1824, many British authors wrote novels inspired by it.^{[citation needed]} In the 20th century, the genre has been particularly popular among female and^{[7][Need quotation to verify]}minority writers;^{[8][Need quotation to verify]} it has spread to Germany, Britain, France,^[9] and several other countries around the globe.^{[citation needed]}

The genre translates fairly directly into cinematic form, the coming-of-age film.

A Bildungsroman tells about the growing up or coming of age of a sensitive person who is looking for answers and experience. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest son going out in the world to seek his fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story there is an emotional loss which makes the protagonist leave on his journey. In a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the protagonist and he is ultimately accepted into society – the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.

There are many variations and subgenres of Bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual. An Entwicklungsroman ("development novel") is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An Erziehungsroman ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling,^{[citation needed]} while a Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.^[10]

Examples

• Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (12th century), a precursor of the genre^[11]
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding (1749)^[12]
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne (1759)^[12]
• Candide, by Voltaire (1759)^[13]
• Émile: or, On Education, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762)
• Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the paragon of the genre (1795–96)
• The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1787), though the protagonist doesn't learn to accept society, and instead commits suicide.
• The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson), by Johann David Wyss, and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss (1812)
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
• David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850)
• Green Henry, by Gottfried Keller (1855)^[14]
• Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (1860-1861)
• Martin Eden, by Jack London (1909)^[15]
• The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani (1911)^[16]
• Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence (1913)^[17]
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce (1916)^[18]
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)^[19]
• Pather Panchali, by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (1929)^[20]
• Black Boy, by Richard Wright (1945),^[21]
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)
• Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (1959)^[22]
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler (1959)
• Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)^[23]
• Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card (1985) ^[24]
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson (1985)^[25]
• The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)^[26]
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (2003)^[27]
• Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro (2005) ^[28]

See also

Novels portal

• Künstlerroman

Notes

References

• Abel, Elizabeth, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland. 1983. The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England.
• Bakhtin, Mikhail. Mikhail. 1996. “The Bildungsroman and its Significance in the History of Realism.” In Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Edited by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin, Tex.: University of Texas Press, 10-59.
• Engel, Manfred (2008): Variants of the Romantic 'Bildungsroman' (with a Short Note on the 'Artist Novel')". In: Gerald Gillespie, Manfred Engel and Bernard Dieterle (eds.), Romantic Prose Fiction (= A Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages, vol. XXIII; ed. by the International Comparative Literature Association). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 263–295. ISBN 978-90-272-3456-8.
• Iversen, Anniken Telnes (2009): Change and Continuity: The Bildungsroman in English. University of Tromsø, Munin.
• Jeffers, Thomas L. (2005). Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-6607-9. 
• Lynch, Jack (1999) Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms, entry for bildungsroman, Rutgers University
• Summerfield, Giovanna and Downward, Lisa (2010) New Perspectives on the European Bildungsroman

Further reading

• Abrams, M. H. (2005). Glossary of Literary Terms (8th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 1-4130-0218-8. 
• Feng, Pin-chia Kingston A. 1997. The Female Bildungsroman by Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston: A Postmodern Reading, Modern American Literature: New Approaches. New York: Peter Lang.
• Japtok, Martin Michael. 2005. Growing up Ethnic: Nationalism and the Bildungsroman in African-American and Jewish-American Fiction. University of Iowa Press.
• Karafilis, Maria. 1998. "Crossing the Borders of Genre: Revisions of the Bindungsroman in Sandra Cisneros's the House on Mango Street and Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John." Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association. 31, no. 2: 63-78.
• Minden, Michael (1997): The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Moretti, Franco. 1987. The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture. London: Verso.
• Nyatetu-Waigwa, Wangari wa. 1996. The Liminal Novel: Studies in the Francophone-African Novel as Bildungsroman. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
• Otano, Alicia. 2005. Speaking the Past: Child Perspective in the Asian American Bildungsroman, Contributions to Asian American Literary Studies. Lit Verlag.

External links

Look up bildungsroman in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• List of literary genres by GCMS Elementary School Library
• Genres by Brooklyn College
• Literary genre by Perspectives on Theistic Evolution