Bildungsroman


 * Bildungsroman Definitions **

 The term //Bildungsroman // denotes a novel of all-around self-development. A distilled version of the one offered by Marianne Hirsch in "The Novel of Formation as Genre": 1. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society." 2. To spur the hero or heroine on to their journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting. 3. The process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order. 4. Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the protagonist, who is then accommodated into society. The novel ends with an assessment by the protagonist of himself and his new place in that society

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The //Bildungsroman// (the novel of personal development or of education) originated in Germany in the latter half of the 18th century and has since become one of the major narrative genres in European and Anglo-American literature. It charts the protagonist’s actual or metaphorical journey from youth to maturity. Initially the aim of this journey is reconciliation between the desire for individuation (self-fulfillment) and the demands of socialisation (adaptation to a given social reality).

Since the genre deals with subjectivity and the relationship between self and society, many novels concerned with psychological characterisation and questions of identity use //Bildungsroman// elements. The heyday of the //Bildungsroman// is undoubtedly the nineteenth century as a period of class-conflict, social change and educational reforms throughout Europe and Britain which challenge and change the relationship between the individual and society. Throughout the twentieth century, the genre undergoes many modifications, revisions and crises.

Article contributed by Petra Rau, University of Portsmouth and found at []