A Bildungsroman is a growing up or "coming of age" of a generally naive person who goes in search of answers to life's questions expecting that these will gain him or her experience of the world. The genre evolved from
folklore tales of a
dunce or youngest child going out in the world to seek their fortune. Usually in the beginning of the story, there is an emotional loss that makes the protagonist leave on his journey. In a Bildungsroman, the goal is maturity, and the protagonist achieves it gradually and with difficulty. The genre often features a main conflict between the main character and society. Typically, the values of society are gradually accepted by the
protagonist, who is ultimately accepted into society—the protagonist's mistakes and disappointments are over. In some works, the protagonist is able to reach out and help others after having achieved maturity.
Franco Moretti "argues that the main conflict in the Bildungsroman is the myth of
modernity with its overvaluation of youth and progress as it clashes with the static
teleological vision of happiness and reconciliation found in the endings of
Goethe's
Wilhelm Meister and even
Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice". There are many variations and subgenres of Bildungsroman that focus on the growth of an individual. An
Entwicklungsroman ('development novel') is a story of general growth rather than self-cultivation. An
Erziehungsroman ("education novel") focuses on training and formal schooling, while a
Künstlerroman ("artist novel") is about the development of an artist and shows a growth of the self. Furthermore, some memoirs and published journals can be regarded as Bildungsroman although claiming to be predominantly factual (e.g.,
The Dharma Bums by
Jack Kerouac or
The Motorcycle Diaries by
Ernesto "Che" Guevara). The term is also more loosely used to describe coming-of-age films and related works in other genres. ==Examples==