Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman A bildungsroman (German pronunciation: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.roˌmaːn]; German: "novel of education") is a coming-of-age kind of novel. It arose during the German Enlightenment. In it, the author presents the psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of a character, usually the protagonist. The term Bildungsroman was coined by Johann Carl Simon Morgenstern.[1]
Features
The bildungsroman generally takes the following course:
The protagonist grows from child to adult.
The protagonist has a reason to embark upon his or her journey. A loss or some discontent must, at an early stage, jar him or her away from the home or family setting.
The process of maturation is long, arduous and gradual, involving repeated clashes between the hero's (protagonist's) needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order. This conflict bears some similarity to Sigmund Freud's concept of the pleasure principle versus the reality principle; a prominent example is the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
Within the broader 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 genres other than the bildungsroman can include elements of it as prominent parts of their story lines. For example, a military story might show a raw recruit receiving a baptism by fire and becoming a battle-hardened soldier, while a high-fantasy quest story may show a transformation from an adolescent protagonist into an adult who is aware of his or her lineage or powers. Neither of those genres or stories, however, corresponds exactly to the bildungsroman.
Select examples
This is an incomplete chronological list of Bildungsroman works that are widely acknowledged to be representative of the genre.
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (1100s), a precursor of the genre [3]
Features
The bildungsroman generally takes the following course:
The protagonist grows from child to adult.
The protagonist has a reason to embark upon his or her journey. A loss or some discontent must, at an early stage, jar him or her away from the home or family setting.
The process of maturation is long, arduous and gradual, involving repeated clashes between the hero's (protagonist's) needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order. This conflict bears some similarity to Sigmund Freud's concept of the pleasure principle versus the reality principle; a prominent example is the book A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.
Within the broader 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 genres other than the bildungsroman can include elements of it as prominent parts of their story lines. For example, a military story might show a raw recruit receiving a baptism by fire and becoming a battle-hardened soldier, while a high-fantasy quest story may show a transformation from an adolescent protagonist into an adult who is aware of his or her lineage or powers. Neither of those genres or stories, however, corresponds exactly to the bildungsroman.
Select examples
This is an incomplete chronological list of Bildungsroman works that are widely acknowledged to be representative of the genre.
Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, by Ibn Tufail (1100s), a precursor of the genre [3]