Bildungsroman

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A Bildungsroman (IPA: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.roˌmaːn]; German: "novel of formation") is a novelistic genre that arose during the German Enlightenment. In the Bildungsroman, the author presents the psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of the — generally, young — protagonist. The Bildungsroman is regarded by some as a variation on the concept of the monomyth. Such themes are now often also portrayed in films (epitomic examples of which are the Harry Potter, The Matrix and Star Wars series) and in animation.

[edit] Features

The Bildungsroman usually contains the following course:

  • The protagonist grows from boy to man or girl to woman.
  • The protagonist must have some reason to go on this journey. A loss or discontent must jar him or her at an early stage away from the home or family setting.
  • The process of maturing is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the needs or desires of the hero and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order. This bears some similarity to Sigmund Freud's concept of the pleasure principle versus the reality principle.
  • 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/herself and his/her new place in that society.
  • The character is generally making a smooth movement away from conformity. Major conflict is self vs. society or individuality vs. conformity.

Within the genre, an Entwicklungsroman is a story of general growth rather than self-culture; an Erziehungsroman focuses on training and formal education; and a Künstlerroman is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self.

Many other genres, separate from the Bildungsroman genre, can include elements of the Bildungsroman as a prominent part of their story lines, while not in themselves fitting the criteria of the Bildungsroman. For example, a military story frequently shows a raw recruit receiving a baptism of fire and becoming a battle-hardened soldier. A high fantasy quest may also show a transformation from an adolescent protagonist into an adult aware of his/her powers or lineage. Neither of those genres or stories correspond exactly to the Bildungsroman, however.

[edit] Examples

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[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa, pp. 327–28.
  2. ^ ten Kortenaar: Self, Nation, Text in Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children [Indologica]
  3. ^ BOOKS OF THE TIMES;Rushdie On India: Serious, Crammed Yet Light - New York Times

[edit] References

  • Jeffers, Thomas L., Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana (New York: Palgrave, 2005).
  • Abrams, M.H. Glossary of Literary Terms - Eighth Edition (Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005).
  • Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Art of Bolesław Prus), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972.