Adapter from The Victorian Web 

     The term Bildungsroman denotes a novel of all-around self-development. Used generally, it encompasses a few similar genres: the Entwicklungsroman, a story of general growth rather than self-culture; the Erziehungsroman, which focuses on training and formal education; and the Kunstlerroman, about the development of an artist. Although Great Expectations, Aurora Leigh, and Waterland may fit one of these more specific categories, for the purposes of comparison, I shall discuss the Bildungsroman genre as a whole and how it applies to all three. My definition of Bildungsroman is a distilled version of the one offered by Marianne Hirsch in "The Novel of Formation as Genre":

1. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society."

2. To spur the hero or heroine on to their journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar them at an early stage away from the home or family setting.

3. The process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual, consisting of repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

4. 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 and his new place in that society.

Great Expectations is widely considered to be a direct descendant of Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, the prototypicalBildungsroman. Aurora Leigh takes the genre and complicates it with problems of gender in Victorian society. Waterlandreconsiders personal growth in a postmodern context, using narrative not for description, but rather as the vehicle for maturation.

LECTURE NOTES: Coming of Age and Rite of Passage lecture notes.docx

Additional reading on wikipedia