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 Bildungsroman
1) Emotional 4) Youth learns,
loss for youth matures

2) Youth leaves 5) Young adult accepts

home on “journey” values of society.
Society accepts him.

3) Encounters
many conflicts
6) Adult returns home
with new knowledge to
External - man Internal - man benefit society.
vs. society vs. himself
 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?
 Examples of the Bildungsroman

 Charles Dickens's Great Expectations

 Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre
 James Joyce's 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