Bildungsroman

American  

[bil-doongz-roh-mahn, beel-doongks-raw-mahn] / ˈbɪl dʊŋz roʊˌmɑn, ˈbil dʊŋks rɔˌmɑn /

noun

Bildungsromans, plural Bildungsromane plural

1. a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protagonist.

---

Bildungsroman British  

/ ˈbɪldʊŋsromaːn /

noun

1. a novel concerned with a person's formative years and development

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Bildungsromane
  plural
• Bildungsromans
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Bildungsroman

1905–10; < German, equivalent to Bildung formation + -s noun ending in compounds + Roman novel

Explanation

Pen a novel that follows the moral and psychological development of a character from youth to adulthood, and you've written a bildungsroman! Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is a great example of a bildungsroman. This German literary term comes from Bildung, "education or growth," and Roman, "novel." You can think of this type of book as a novel that focuses on the spiritual education or psychological growth of a protagonist over time. If you love so-called "coming-of-age" books, you're already familiar with bildungsromans — and now you have a new word for them!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Bildungsroman Bildungsromane Bildungsromans

Kuang once again crafts a unique Bildungsroman that doesn't fulfill the usual expectations for what fantasy is or perhaps, what a Western fantasy is expected to be — and that is its most profound strength.

From Salon ● Dec. 15, 2022

Herzog’s early years read like a Bildungsroman, like something he had immortalised in one of his own films.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2020

Indeed, many of his books are not just novels of education—the Bildungsroman that had been a classic genre in European literature since Goethe—but specifically novels of schooling.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 12, 2018

The core problem is that his enthusiasms get the better of him, and the book reads like a music fan’s Bildungsroman, rather than a critic’s enlightening reflections.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 8, 2016

One might say, indeed, that at the beginning of the 20th century the traditional form of German fiction, the Bildungsroman, had come into its ancient rights again.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 7 "Geoponici" to "Germany" by Various

It's the state written about by Douglas Coupland in the nineties and in the Bildungsromane of the 19th Century, and it's emerging adulthood – not sexual ethics – that I see as Catherine's main theme.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 10, 2012

Bildungsromans about writers tend to end with them resolving to write their own stories — James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus, say, going to forge “the uncreated conscience of my race.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2017