Bildungsroman
is a genre in which the plot revolves around the psychological and moral growth
of the protagonist from childhood to maturity. It is also known as the novel of
education or the novel of formation, and is a type of the coming-of-age story.
Coined by the philologist Karl Morgenstern in 1819, the German term
'Bildungsroman' literally translates as 'formation novel'.
Features
of a Bildungsroman
The
Bildungsroman narrates the story of the development of a sensitive person who
goes in search of the meaning of life and of her/his place in society.
A
Bildungsroman generally begins with an emotional loss which compels the
protagonist to set off on her/his journey.
The
protagonist faces several hurdles and failures along the way, and is often
shown in conflict with the values of society.
Eventually,
and very gradually, the protagonist transforms from an inexperienced person to
an emotionally mature individual.
In the
end, the protagonist accepts the values of society and is accepted into
society.
This
genre could be said to have evolved from folk tales in which a simple young man
goes out into the world to seek his fortune. As a literary genre, the
Bildungsroman came into being with the publication of Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96). This German novel had a
great impact upon Europe and the rest of the world, and Goethe's translated
work inspired several authors who began to write novels that traced the
evolution of the protagonist. Examples of this genre are Tom Jones (1749) by
Henry Fielding, Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Brontë, Great Expectations (1861)
by Charles Dickens, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger, and The
Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini.
A
variation of the Bildungsroman is the Künstlerroman (German for 'artist's
novel') which traces the development of an artist or a writer. Charles Dickens's
David Copperfield (1850), James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young and D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913) are examples of this subgenre.
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