Bildungsroman

            This course will explore a variety of coming-of-age stories across cultures from the mid-eighteenth century to present day. Bildungsroman is a German term for a novel of development or education (“bildungs” refers to the process of formation or building, and “roman” refers to the novel). The genre is closely tied to the rise of the novel itself, as an art form that examines the subjective experience or psychological development of individuals living in a complex world. Yet the bildungsroman, in particular, tends to focus on an adolescent protagonist who develops toward maturity over the course of several years. The genre has had significant influence across a variety of media, and the term “bildungsroman” can be used, somewhat loosely, to describe not only novels but coming-of-age narratives more broadly. 

            The schedule for this course will move through four distinct units. In the first unit, students will read academic criticism about the bildungsroman and the novel, as artistic forms, alongside Voltaire’s satirical novel Candide (1759). The first essay assignment will ask students to draw on these sources to examine the definition and purpose of the bildungsroman. In a second unit, students will read Charlotte Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre and Harriet E. Wilson’s early African American novel Our Nig. Students will be asked to choose and analyze specific scenes from these novels to consider nineteenth-century girlhood and how personal development is inflected by issues of gender, race, and nation. Our third unit will examine a pair of experimental coming-of-age narratives, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time (1925) and Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red (1998). Students will compose a research essay that considers how the form of these texts (one is a collection of short stories and the other is a novel in verse) impacts the story of the protagonist’s development. The fourth and final unit will turn to more recent literature as we read Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir Persepolis. The final project will provide creative options for responding to these texts.

Required Texts

Voltaire, Candide. Norton Critical Edition, 2016.

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1996.

Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig. Penguin Classics, 2009.

Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time. Scribner, 1996.

Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street. Vintage, 1991.

Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red. Vintage, 1998.

Course Objectives

At the completion of this course, students should be able to:

  • Reflect critically on how coming-of-age narratives represent subjective experience and the development of an individual;

  • Use literary texts to explore the factors that affect adolescent development across different historical and global cultures;

  • Analyze and interpret passages of literature, with close attention to issues of character, setting, plot, narration, and figurative language;

  • Compose a substantial, evidence-based, argumentative essay in response to a novel;

  • Consider how different artistic forms—novel, novella, short story cycle, graphic memoir, and film—impact a narrative.

SCHEDULE

Wed. 1/23:       Introductions

Unit 1. Development of the Bildungsroman

Mon. 1/28:  Ian Watt, “Realism and the Novel Form” in The Rise of the Novel

                        Georg Lukacs, Chapters 4 & 5 in The Theory of the Novel

Wed. 1/30:   Jerome H. Buckley, “Introduction: The Space Between,” in Season of Youth

                        Marc Redfield, “The Phantom Bildungsroman,” in Phantom Formations    

Mon. 2/4:        Voltaire, Candide, Introduction & Preface (vii-xiv)

                                    Chapters 1-18 (pp. 1-43)

Wed. 2/6:         Voltaire, Candide, Chapters 19-30 (43-81)

Mon. 2/11:      Reading in Candide: Robin Howells, “Does Candide Learn?” (189-198)

                        Essay I (Is Candide a Bildungsroman?)

Unit 2. Nineteenth-Century Girlhood

Wed. 2/13:       Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Introduction and Chapters 1-10 (pp. 1-100)

Mon. 2/18:      Bronte, Jane Eyre, Chapters 11-20 (pp. 101-220)

Wed. 2/20:       Bronte, Jane Eyre, Chapters 21-30 (pp. 220-351)

Mon. 2/25:      Bronte, Jane Eyre, Chapters 31-38 (pp. 351-441)

Wed. 2/27:       Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

                                    Chapters 1-6 (pp. 1-40)

Mon. 3/4:        Wilson, Our Nig. Chapters 7-12 (pp. 40-72)

Wed. 3/6:         In-Class Workshop

Essay II (Analyzing Scenes of Girlhood)

3/9-3/17:          **Spring Recess / No Classes**

Unit 3. Formal Experimentations

Mon. 3/18:      Ernest Hemingway, In Our Time, (1-63)

Wed. 3/20:       Hemingway, In Our Time (65-105)

Mon. 3/25:      Hemingway, In Our Time (107-157)

Wed. 3/27:       **Community of Scholars Day / No Classes**

Mon. 4/1:        Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red (1-50)

Wed. 4/3:         Carson, Autobiography of Red (51-97)

Mon. 4/8:        Carson, Autobiography of Red (98-149)

Wed. 4/10:       In-Class Workshop

                        Research Essay Due

Mon. 4/15:      **Patriots’ Day (Marathon Monday) / No Classes**

Unit 4. Contemporary Transnational Bildungsroman

Wed. 4/17:       Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1-55)

Mon. 4/22:      Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (56-110)

Wed. 4/24:       Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis (1-39) 

Mon. 4/29:      Satrapi, Persepolis (40-102)  

Wed. 5/1:         Satrapi, Persepolis (103-153)

Final Project (Overview, Excerpt, and Discussion of your own imagined Bildungsroman)