Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday July 24, 2012
Bildungsroman \BIL-doongz-roh-mahn\
, noun:
A type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.
Unlike David Copperfield, The Catcher in the Rye is no Bildungsroman, because the narrator/protagonist doesn't want to grow up.
-- John Sutherland and Stephen Fender, Love, Sex, Death & Words
With its emphasis squarely on the diversity and latitude of lived experiences, Night Travellers unambiguously demonstrates its unease with the rigid providential scenario that pervades this kind of political Bildungsroman.
-- Yunzhong Shu, Buglers on the Home Front
Bildungsroman stems from the German word of the same spelling. The word bildung means "formation," and the word roman means "book."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for Bildungsroman
