Random Trivia: Bildungsroman

I recently learned that the style of writing which I’ve been enjoying so much lately is called “bildungsroman” — a novelistic form which concentrates on the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the protagonist usually from childhood to maturity.

(click the speaker icon on this page to hear the pronunciation)

Bildungsromans usually contain the following course:

The protagonist grows from boy or girl to man or woman.
The protagonist must have some reason to go on this journey. A 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 needs or desires of the hero and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order. This bears some similarity to Sigmund Freud’s concept of the pleasure principle versus the reality principle.
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.
The character is generally making a smooth movement away from conformity. Major conflict is self vs. society or individuality vs. conformity.
There are themes of exile or escape

Eragon, Eldest, The Lord of the Rings series, the Harry Potter series, and The Wheel of Time series all qualify.

Doesn’t your life feel complete now that you know that? :)

I picked up this pearl of knowledge (which I’m bound to forget in a week) while bouncing around Wikipedia the other day.

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View Comments to “Random Trivia: Bildungsroman”

Brian June 29th, 2008 at 2:08 pm

LMAO

Ok, this is funny. I had a random thought today, trying to remember this word… I had to search my blog several times (and had even started to write an author friend of mine to see if she knew the word) before finding it.

But what’s funny is that in this post — that’s just over a year old — I even said, “I’m bound to forget [this word] in a week”. HOW TRUE!! ;-)

mikeb December 7th, 2008 at 9:26 am

It stuck in my head after a lecture years ago, but it took Google to get the spelling right for me. What’s getting me is that nobody’s saying Philip Pullman and the His Dark Materials trilogy, and that seems to me a perfect modern example – going deeper than Harry Potter.

Brian December 7th, 2008 at 11:03 am

Absolutely, I think that definitely qualifies! I don’t think I’d read that yet when I posted this or I probably would have included it in my short list… (Nope, you can see in the right sidebar I started that trilogy in Jan ’08)