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Modernist Studies and the Bildungsroman : A Historical Survey of Critical Trends
Author(s) -
Boes Tobias
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2006.00303.x
Subject(s) - historicism , emphasis (telecommunications) , scholarship , german , colonialism , literature , history , sociology , art , political science , law , archaeology , electrical engineering , engineering
The term Bildungsroman , or “novel of formation,” remains at once one of the most vexing, but also one of the most fruitful contributions that German letters have made to the international vocabulary of literary studies. This article presents a survey of critical trends in Bildungsroman studies, from the early twentieth century to the present, but with an emphasis on scholarship from the last decade. Special attention is paid to work done in modernist studies. The article is divided into three parts. The first presents a broad historical overview and explores the problems raised by diverging critical traditions in Germany and the English‐speaking world. The second focuses on the rise of feminist and historicist modes of inquiry between 1980 and 1995. The final part explores some of the most recent contributions to the genre, with special emphasis on colonial and post‐colonial studies.