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Concept
Bildungsroman
Summary
In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman (ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːn, plural Bildungsromane, ˈbɪldʊŋs.ʁoˌmaːnə) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is important. The term comes from the German words Bildung ("education", alternatively "forming") and Roman ("novel").
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 (1824) and his own Sartor Resartus (1833–34), 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 Illiad 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 Achiles' development. At the beginning Achiles is still a rash youth, making rash decisions which cost dearly to himself and all around him.(...) The story reaches its conclusion when Achiles 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.
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 with the expectation that these will result in gaining experience of the world.
Official source
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