The Bildungsroman

Bildungsroman A bildungsroman is a novel that traces the

psychological and moral development and maturation of the main character or characters.

Sometimes also referred to as a ‘coming of age’ story.

Usually, this presentation pertains to the protagonist. It can also, however, show the inverse development of the antagonist.

Plot of BildungsromanTrack events in APofAaaYM

1) Emotional loss for youth

2) Youth leaves home on “journey”

3) Encounters many conflicts

Internal - man vs. himself

External - man vs. society

4) Youth learns, matures

5) Young adult accepts values of society.

Society accepts him.

6) Adult returns home with new knowledge to benefit society.

Construction of the Bildungsroman

The writer creates situations that allow the reader to see the young protagonist grow and experience struggles in this journey to adulthood through formal education, personal experience and various kinds of relationship.

The writer often shows the protagonist struggling with the transition between the innocence of childhood and the responsibility that comes with adulthood.

Think: how might these struggles relate to the title of the novel?

Definition 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."

To spur the hero or heroine on to his/her journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar him/her at an early stage away from the home or family setting.

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.

Eventually, the spirit and values of the social order become manifest in the protagonist, who is then accommodated into society.

More Discussion

Bildungsroman is the name affixed to those novels that concentrate on the development or education of a central character. German in origin, "bildungs" means formation, and

"roman" means novel. Although The History of Agathon, written by Christoph Martin Wieland in 1766-1767, may be the first known example, it was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, written in 1795, that took the form from philosophical to personal development and gave celebrity to the genre.

More than any other type of novel, the Bildungsroman intends to lead the reader to greater personal enrichment as the protagonist journeys from youth to psychological or emotional maturity.

Themes Coming of Age and ApprenticeshipGoethe's Bildungsroman appropriately uses the word

"apprenticeship" in its title because one distinguishing factor of the genre is the learning process that brings the protagonist from childhood into adulthood.

As a coming-of-age novel, the Bildungsroman focuses on the main character's apprenticeship. These experiences place the character near older practitioners whose roles as models the character either emulates or rejects.

EducationThe Bildungsroman is a novel of formation or

development. These terms imply that the Bildungsroman is also a novel about education. Life is an education, and the process of growing up as chronicled in the Bildungsroman is a series of experiences that teach lessons.

More Discussion Traditionally, this growth occurs according to a pattern:

the sensitive, intelligent protagonist leaves home, undergoes stages of conflict and growth, is tested by crises and love affairs, then finally finds the best place to use his/her unique talents. Sometimes the protagonist returns home to show how well things turned out.

Some bildungsroman end with the death of the hero, leaving the promise of his life unfulfilled. Traditionally, English novelists complicate the protagonist's battle to establish an individual identity with conflicts from outside the self.

German novelists typically concentrate on the internal struggle of the hero. The protagonist's adventures can be seen as a quest for the meaning of life or as a vehicle for the author's social and moral opinions as demonstrated through the protagonist.

Style Audience

The Bildungsroman doesn't just tell a story. It involves the reader in the same process of education and development as the main character. The aim is to affect the reader's personal growth as well. However, at some point in the narrative, the reader may be in disagreement with the protagonist. Realizing that the hero has made a mistake in judgment, the reader, in effect, learns from the situation before the protagonist or otherwise compares his/her own morality against the moral of the story that the hero eventually learns.

Character In the Bildungsroman, the focus is on one main

character. The structure of the Bildungsroman is to follow this one character from youth to adulthood. Other characters exist in the story, but only in roles that have some kind of connection with the protagonist.

Review Bildungsroman

Novel of personal development Concentrates on the spiritual, moral, psychological, or

social development and growth of the protagonist usually from childhood to maturity

Contain experiences which define who one is and is to become

Set in the past from when they were centered around young people on the verge of some maturation process

Surround an event that awakens one from innocence and removes the veil or sheltered and naïve way of seeing the world from one’s sight

Protagonist is faced with some sort of decision, the outcome of which will have a significant impact on the rest of his/her life.

Decisions/Choices These decisions are put forward in such a way as to

make one alternative more difficult, but as a sign of growing up, while the other is the easy way out that enables the decider to remain within his/her youthful comfort zone.

The decisions which the character makes will impact the rest of his/her life.

On a grander scale, these decisions may provide much valuable information about the broader societal problems and decisions which his/her culture and society have faced and how later generations have viewed these decisions and the outcomes.

Reflects nostalgia for the simpler past of childhood Faced with important choices as to whether they should

conform to what society/authority figures expects or whether they ought not follow their own path.

Examples of the Bildungsroman

Charles Dickens's Great Expectations Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as

a Young Man J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird