Bildungsroman

The Bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn]; Template:Lang-de) is a genre of the novel which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood. Change is thus extremely important. The genre is further characterized by a number of formal, topical and thematic features. 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. 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. In the 20th century, the genre has been particularly popular among women and minority writers, and it has spread to numerous countries around the globe. The genre translates fairly directly into cinematic form.

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.

Features

To be categorized in the genre Bildungsroman, the plot must follow a certain course. The protagonist grows from child to adult in the novel. An example of this genre could be the book Johnny Tremain, or Tom Sawyer. At an early stage, a loss or some sort of discontent pushes him or her away from home or the family setting, providing an impetus to embark on a journey. The main character often develops through "self actualization". The process of maturation is long, strenuous and gradual, involving repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

There are many other similar genres 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, while a Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.

Many genres other than the Bildungsroman can include elements of this genre as prominent parts of their story lines. For example, a military story might show a raw recruit undergoing a baptism by fire and becoming a battle-hardened soldier, while a fantasy quest story may show a transformation from an adolescent protagonist into an adult who is aware of his or her lineage or powers. Yet neither of these genres or story types corresponds exactly to the Bildungsroman.

Examples

• Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (12th century), a precursor of the genre
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding (1749)
• The Yearling, by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (1938)
• Candide, by Voltaire (1759)
• 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
• The Coral Island, by R.M. Ballantyne
• The Swiss Family Robinson (German: Der Schweizerische Robinson), by Johann David Wyss, and edited by his son Johann Rudolf Wyss
• Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
• David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens (1850)
• Green Henry, by Gottfried Keller (1855)
• Adam Bede, by George Eliot(1859)
• The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde (1890)
• Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908)
• Martin Eden, by Jack London (1909)
• The Book of Khalid, by Ameen Rihani (1911)
• Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence (1913)
• Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham (1915)
• This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1920)
• Gli indifferenti, by Alberto Moravia (1929)
• Pather Panchali, by Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay (1929)
• Black Boy, by Richard Wright (1945),
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger (1951)
• Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin (1953)
• Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth (1959)
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, by Jeanette Winterson (1985)
• The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)
• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini (2003)

See also

Künstlerroman

References

14. http://www.gcms.k12.il.us/gcmsel/lynnet/literary_genres.htm

15. http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/genres.html

16. http://www.theisticevolution.org/lit_genre.html

Literature

• Abel, Elizabeth, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland. 1983. The Voyage In: Fictions of Female Development. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England.

• Abrams, M. H. (2005). Glossary of Literary Terms (8th ed.). Boston: Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 1413002188. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• 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.

• 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.

• Iversen, Anniken Telnes (2009): Change and Continuity: The Bildungsroman in English. University of Tromsø, Munin.

• Japtok, Martin Michael. 2005. Growing up Ethnic: Nationalism and the Bildungsroman in African-American and Jewish-American Fiction. University of Iowa Press.

• Jeffers, Thomas L. (2005). Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana. New York: Palgrave. ISBN 1403966079. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• 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.
• Lynch, Jack. 1999. Glossary of Literary and Rhetorical Terms

• Minden, Michael (1997): The German Bildungsroman: Incest and Inheritance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

• 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.