The Bildungsroman Tradition

Key Terminology

Entwicklungsroman/Entwicklungsromane: a novel in which an adolescent character experiences transformation

Bildungsroman/Bildungsromane: a novel in which an adolescent matures into adulthood

Kuntslerroman/Kuntslerromane: a novel in which an artist matures from an apprentice to an expert

Coming-of-Age Novel: a contemporary term that is often used to refer to both the Entwicklungsroman and the Bildungsroman

What is the Bildungsroman?

The word Bildungsroman is German in origin. It combines the word “bildung” which means to build with “roman” which means novel. Thus, the Bildungsroman is a novel of “building” or growth and development.

Scholars always capitalize the term Bildungsroman to recognize the German custom of capitalizing proper nouns. Some scholars will also italicize the term.

History of the Bildungsroman The Bildungsroman

developed in Europe during the 18th century, a time when socio-economic changes impacted literary production. The downfall of the monarchy and the rise of the industrial middle class had implications for creative writers, as did the growth of Protestantism.

Rather than writing for an elite audience, authors began to write for and about people like themselves – members of the middle class or bourgeoisie. The form they developed was the novel, which enabled them to describe everyday events in everyday language and to focus on the inner lives of characters.

The Influence of Protestantism One of the most

important influences on these early novelists was the rise of Protestantism. While the Catholic faith required members to worship God through the intercession of religious clerics, the Protestant faith advocated the idea that individuals should form their own relationships with God.

Because Protestants believed that one must engage in self-reflection in order to assure one’s salvation, most Protestants became interested in human behavior, as they tried to determine what sort of upbringing might guarantee that a child would develop into an adult who was assured of salvation.

Protestant Reform Encouraged Self-Scrutiny

The Influence of Democracy

At the same time that Protestants were investigating human nature in relationship to salvation, political reformers were advocating the creation of governmental structures that we would now term “democratic.”

During the 18th century, political revolutions cropped up in Europe and in the New World.

In the American colonies, the framers of the Constitution and their allies argued that education and childhood development were crucial to the maintenance of democratic forms of government. Many theorists believed that an educated citizenry was the only guarantee that a democracy could survive.

Humanists Encouraged the Study of Child Development

The Result = The Bildungsroman By the latter half of

the 18th century, religious and political changes impacted the creative arts, and many novelists began to write texts that focused on the best ways for a young man to move from adolescence to adulthood. This form of novel was called the Bildungsroman.

The Bildungsroman featured a talented young man who: Left home to get an

education – both intellectual and sexual

Rebelled against his culture

Fell in love and rededicated himself to learning

Returned home, married, and settled in a career.

The Rise of the Modern Novel “Although there has been considerable recent

debate over when or even whether the novel "rose" in the 18th century (as the title of Ian Watt's 1957 book suggests it did), critics generally agree that it was during this period that a significant critical discourse regarding the novel emerged---that 18th-century novelists and critics alike distinguished this "new species of writing" (as Samuel Richardson called it in a letter of 1741) from the prose fiction and nonfiction that preceded it” (Bartolomeo).

The Focus of the Bildungsroman The focus of the Bildungsroman is upon

change, whether it be physical, psychological, or moral.

Bakhtin calls it “the image of a man in the process of becoming.”

The emphasis on growth was driven, in part, by elaborate 18th-century debates regarding childhood development.

18th-century views of childhood development

Industrial democracy and the need for an educated populace = a greater focus on childhood

Romantic attitudes, which prevailed in the latter half of the 18th century, encouraged a view of the child as an innocent who stood in constant danger of being corrupted by “unhealthy” influences.

Childhood and the Novel

Novels became one site for debate regarding the nature of childhood and the best manner of educating the child towards an idealized citizenship in the larger community

Of course, what constituted “idealized citizenship” would change over time – a fact that will inform our discussion of texts this term.

Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749)

Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774)

The Female Bildungsroman

While the Bildungsroman remained a primarily male-focused genre, women began to write variations that included the progress of a young girl from adolescence to adulthood and marriage.

In the second half of the 19th century, authors began to experiment with the idea that a woman could take on a vocation – but this concept wouldn’t gain social acceptance until the 20th century.

Austen’s Emma (1816); Anne of Green Gables (1908)

The Conservative Nature of the Bildungsroman

The tensions between self and community

The desire to reign in anarchistic impulses

The economic importance of the “well- regulated” self

Male vs Female Diminishment