A novel which deals principally with the formative stages of its hero(ine)'s life - childhood, education, adolescence. The term comes from Germany, where Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (17956) set the pattern for later Bildungsromane. Other examples are Rousseau's Emile (1762), Dickens's David Copperfield (1850), Musil's Young Torless (1906), and Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914).
A bildungsroman (IPA: [ˈbɪldʊŋs.roˌmaːn]/, German: "novel of education" or "novel of formation") is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity.
Description of genre
Among the components of a bildungsroman:
To spur the hero onto his or her journey, some form of 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 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. The novel ends with an assessment by the protagonist of himself/herself and his/her new place in that society.
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