BILDUNGSROMAN OR

COMING OF AGE

JOURNAL

Who are your favorite child or adolescent characters from literature (children’s stories, fairy tales, novels, etc)?

“YOUNG POTTER FANS SEE HERO MATURING WITH THEM”1. How have young readers responded to the new Harry Potter book, according to the article?

2. What makes this Harry Potter book different from its predecessors?

3. How has Harry Potter’s character changed?

4. What challenges does Harry face in the new book, according to the article?

5. Who is Joanna McClintick, and how does she describe the Harry Potter books?

6. What was her concern about the prospect of an older teenage Harry Potter?

7. Were her fears founded? Why or why not?

8. Why, according to reader Zoe Lutz, do children identify with the changing Harry Potter?

THE COMING OF AGE ARCHETYPE Characters are between the ages of 12-18

Adults are either "bad guys" or not important

Usually involves a journey of some sort

Must confront fears

Conflict with a parent/guardian

Learning something important

Involving a test or challenges

The ending may be bittersweet

Scarification (scars left - physical and/or emotional)

DEFINITION OF A BILDUNGSROMAN

Bildungsroman concentrate on the development or education of a central character. German in origin, "bildungs" means

formation, and "roman" means novel. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Wilhelm

Meister's Apprenticeship, written in 1795, took the form from philosophical to personal development and gave celebrity to the genre.

Bildungsroman intends to lead the reader to greater personal enrichment as the protagonist journeys from youth to psychological or emotional maturity.

DEFINITION OF A BILDUNGSROMAN

A single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. A quest story -- "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society." To spur the hero or heroine on to his/her journey, some form of loss or discontent must jar him/her at an early stage away from the home or family setting. Process of maturity is long, arduous, and gradual consists of repeated clashes between the protagonist's needs and desires and the views and judgments enforced by an unbending social order.

A BILDUNGSROMAN = A COMING OF AGE STORY

A COMING OF AGE STORY FOCUSES ON THE FOLLOWING: A protagonist who isSocially or psychologically maturing

Receiving an “education” but not just in a traditional school

THE CHARACTER’S GROWTH BEGINS WHEN He/she is faced with loss or discovery…Character may lose innocence

Character may struggle with knowledge that the adult world is complex

Character may find the “absolutes” of childhood no longer exist ( there is not always a right or wrong answer)

THE CHARACTER’S GROWTH IS SHOWN BY

Clashes between what he/she wants and rules of society

The character trying to establish his/her own rules

The character trying to become an active participant in the world

There is either and internal or external conflict – sometimes both!

SOMETIMES THE STORIES CONTAIN

An initiation, trial, or rite of passageReligious ceremony, membership in a club, birthday, etc.

SOMETIMES THE STORIES CONTAIN An epiphany… a sudden realization of truth about him/herself or the world

An epiphany sometimes includes seeing the world for what it really is or people for who they are

An epiphany is sometimes called an “aha” moment.

SOMETIMES THE STORIES CONTAINLoss of innocenceCommon symbols are fruit, gardens/forests, purity that has spoiled or gone rotten

Reflects nostalgia for the simpler past of childhood

Decision MakingDecisions which the character makes will impact the rest of his/her life

Commentary on SocietySome decisions may provide information about the broader societal problems and decisions which his/her culture and society have faced and how later generations have viewed these decisions and the outcomes

SOMETIMES THE STORIES CONTAIN

A journeyA real or symbolic one

TYPICAL PLOT OF BILDUNGSROMAN

1) Emotional loss for youth

2) Youth leaves home on “journey”

3) Encounters many conflicts

Internal - man vs. himself

External - man vs. society

4) Youth learns, matures

5) Young adult accepts values of society.

Society accepts him.

6) Adult returns home with new knowledge to benefit society.

“COMING OF AGE”- FOSTER THE PEOPLE Listen to the song and follow along with the printed out lyrics. Consider these questions:

1. What is this song literally about?

2. How does it connect with COA?