A History of the Bildungsroman

This detailed analysis of the evolution of the Bildungsroman genre is unprecedented in its historical and geographical range.

Sarah Graham (Edited by)

9781316501870, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 18 March 2021

362 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.536 kg

'… an important contribution to modern scholarship on the Bildungsroman. While it will introduce students to the conventional scholarly debates about the Bildungsroman's historical development and its important variants, it will likely do more to expand our sense of the genre's temporal origins, national boundaries, and types of protagonists. The work might even convince its readers that the Bildungsroman is not merely a hegemonic institution increasingly out of step with modernity. Rather, Graham wants to show us that it is also a category of fiction with subversive critiques of sexism, racism, imperialism, and homophobia at its core, and thus still relevant to and alive in our developing century.' Jordan Bunzel, EUP Journal

The Bildungsroman has been one of the most significant genres in Western literature since the eighteenth century. This volume, comprised of eleven chapters by leading experts in the field, offers original insights into how the novel of formation developed a strong tradition in Germany, France, Britain, Russia, and the USA. In demonstrating how the genre has been adopted and adapted in innovative forms of fiction, this volume also shows how a genre traditionally associated with the young white man has been used to give expression to the formative experiences of women, LGBTQ people, and post-colonial populations. Exploring the genre's emergence and evolution in numerous countries and across more than two hundred years, this volume provides unprecedented historical and geographical coverage and demonstrates that the Bildungsroman has a rich heritage and a bright future.

Introduction Sarah Graham
1. The German tradition of the Bildungsroman Todd Kontje
2. The French Bildungsroman Alison Finch
3. The Bildungsroman and nineteenth-century British fiction Richard Salmon
4. The Bildungsroman in imperial Russia and the Soviet Union Lina Steiner
5. The American Bildungsroman Sarah Graham
6. The modernist Bildungsroman Gregory Castle
7. Bildungsroman for children and young adults Fiona McCulloch
8. The female Bildungsroman in the twentieth century Maroula Joannou
9. The postcolonial Bildungsroman Ericka A. Hoagland
10. Lesbian, gay and trans Bildungsroman Meredith Miller
11. Bildungsroman and graphic narratives Ian Gordon.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK], Literary studies: post-colonial literature [DSBH5], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]