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Description
The term “Bildung” is defined as “rebuilding one self,” and within literature it underwent a gradual change of meaning during the 18th century. When analyzing the Bildungsroman genre, it is important to be aware of this idea of “rebuilding” as the genre is founded on the basis of the “psychological, moral, and social shaping of the personality of a protagonist in relation to society.” In the “coming-of-age” genre, a more current extension of Bildungsroman, the protagonist has already grown up and is now reflecting on their past and aspiring to become the “humanistic ideal” or the “perfected man.” As opposed to this, the Bildungsroman genre highlights the journey of maturing, rather than the reflection of the present state of being. It is this journey of self-discovery, rather than the post-reflections of some more learned self, that highlights works such as The House on Mango Street, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Breaking Stalin’s Nose. This project serves the purpose of examining these three novels through the frameworks of the Bildungsroman genre. I examine the Female Bildungsroman, the Native American Bildungsroman, and the Bildungsroman in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. Each protagonist deals with not only the stereotypical obstacles that any teen may face in a coming-of-age narrative, but these protagonists are special in the sense that their cultural backgrounds dictates the caliber of obstacles they must maneuver through on their journey towards liberty in their given societies. I highlight the genre’s characteristics of cultural identity and historical background functioning as a bridge of self-understanding, which the reader can then apply to their own lives to push back against U.S. assimilationist ideologies. The reader learns to recognize the ways in which they are pressured by social institutions such as family, academic systems, government, etc. to grow into a particular kind of citizen in the U.S. in order to assimilate. They are then free to develop their own sense of identity that is not constrained to this idealized citizen.
