Bildungsroman


In literary criticism, a bildungsroman is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood. The term comes from the German words Bildung and Roman.

Origin

The term was coined in 1819 by philologist Johann Karl Simon Morgenstern in his university lectures, and was later famously reprised by Wilhelm Dilthey, who legitimized it in 1870 and popularized it in 1905. 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 Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1795–96, or sometimes to Christoph Martin Wieland's Geschichte des Agathon of 1767. Although the bildungsroman arose in Germany, it has had extensive influence first in Europe and later throughout the world. Thomas Carlyle's English translation of Goethe's novel and his own Sartor Resartus, the first English bildungsroman, inspired many British novelists. In the 20th century, it spread to France and several other countries around the globe.
Barbara Whitman noted that the Iliad might be the first bildungsroman. It is not just "the story of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is in effect the backdrop for the story of Achilles' development. At the beginning Achilles is still a rash youth, making rash decisions which cost dearly to himself and all around him. The story reaches its conclusion when Achilles has reached maturity and allows King Priam to recover Hector's body".
The genre translates fairly directly into the cinematic form, the coming-of-age film.

Plot outline

A bildungsroman is a growing up or "coming of age" of a generally naive person who goes in search of answers to life's questions expecting that these will gain him or her experience of the world. The genre evolved from folklore tales of a dunce or youngest child going out in the world to seek his or her fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story, there is an emotional loss that 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, who 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.
Franco Moretti "argues that the main conflict in the bildungsroman is the myth of modernity with its overvaluation of youth and progress as it clashes with the static teleological vision of happiness and reconciliation found in the endings of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister and even Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice".
There are many variations and subgenres of bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual. An Entwicklungsroman is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An Erziehungsroman focuses on training and formal schooling, while a Künstlerroman is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self. Furthermore, some memoirs and published journals can be regarded as bildungsroman although claiming to be predominantly factual. The term is also more loosely used to describe coming-of-age films and related works in other genres.

Examples

Precursors

16th century

17th century

18th century

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland The [History of Tom Jones, a Foundling] by Henry Fielding Candide by Voltaire The [Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman] by Laurence Sterne

19th century

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni The Red and the Black by Stendhal Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

20th century

Kim by Rudyard Kipling Beneath the Wheel by Hermann Hesse, 1906Martin Eden by Jack London The Book of Khalid by Ameen Rihani Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence A [Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man] by James Joyce Demian by Hermann Hesse This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann

21st century

The [Secret Life of Bees (novel)|The Secret Life of Bees] by Sue Monk Kidd The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura Never [Let Me Go (novel)|Never Let Me Go] by Kazuo Ishiguro Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel Black Swan Green by David Mitchell Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano Indignation by Philip Roth Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima