Examining Margaret Atwood's work in the context of the complex history of the Bildungsroman, Ellen McWilliams explores how the genre has been appropriated by women writers in the second half of the twentieth century. She demonstrates that Atwood's early work - her own 'coming of age' fiction, including unpublished works as well as The Edible Woman, Surfacing, and Lady Oracle - both engages with and works against the paradigms of identity which are traditionally associated with the genre. Making extensive use of unpublished manuscripts in the Atwood Collection at the University of Toronto, McWilliams uncovers influences that shaped Atwood's fashioning of identity in her early novels, paying particular attention to Atwood's preoccupation with survival as a key symbol of Canadian literature, culture, and identity. She also considers the genre's afterlife on display in Cat's Eye, The Robber Bride, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Moral Disorder, in which the formulations of selfhood and identity in Atwood's early fiction are revisited and developed. Atwood emerges as a writer who self-consciously invokes and then undercuts the traditions of the Bildungsroman, a turn that may be read as a means of at once interrogating and perpetuating the form. McWilliams's book furthers our understanding of subjectivity in Atwood's fiction and contributes to ongoing conversations about the role gender and cultural contexts play in reframing generic boundaries.

Sara Lodge offers a lively introduction to the critical history of one of the most widely-studied nineteenth-century novels, from the first reviews through to present day responses. The Guide also includes sections devoted to feminist, Marxist and postcolonial criticism of Jane Eyre, as well as analysis of recent developments.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Bayreuth, course: Heroins of Victorian Fiction, language: English, abstract: Every human being undergoes changes during his life-time. From childhood through adolescence until old age he or she is constantly in a learning process. One can never say that a person is absolutely mature and at the end of his or her maturing process but one can say that there are certain steps in life most people pass or go through. Also Jane Eyre betakes herself on the journey of life and in the novel the reader can watch the different steps she passes and accompanies her. On the one hand they can observe her behaviour objectively, her changes, her maturing process, her fears and challenges in a distant and objective way. They see how other people manage their life and are made aware of their changes without directly being a part of it. On the other hand the reader is able to identify with Jane Eyre and imagine how she must feel because, as I said before, every person changes during their life and experiences certain problems and challenges. Although those must not necessarily be exactly the same as Jane experiences, we can feel with her. There is just a certain amount of feelings a human being is able to feel and as we, together with Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë and many others, belong to the same species we feel similar for example about things like love. [...] I think it is exactly this point of identifying with the heroine that makes Jane Eyre such a popular novel and that also draw my attention to it. However, it is even more the specific topic of the genre Bildungsroman that caught my interest. The development of a character, no matter if in fiction or reality, is always interesting and inspiring. Jane is not afraid of changes and shows the intention to go on the journey to herself. She plays the “inner wheel” to change her life for the better. In my opinion this is something really important because you first have to understand yourself before you are able to understand other people.

This detailed analysis of the evolution of the Bildungsroman genre is unprecedented in its historical and geographical range.

Contributions review a diverse range of works, from postcolonial revision to postmodern fantasy, from imaginary after-lives to science fiction, from plays and Hollywood movies to opera, from lithographs and illustrated editions to comics and graphic novels.

A Study Guide for "Bildungsroman," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Literary Movements for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Literary Movements for Students for all of your research needs.

This book establishes a vector of methodology in the approach to a particular type of fictional discourse, namely the English Bildungsroman (the novel of identity formation). Its wide-ranging critical perspectives are also useful to anyone concerned with, first of all, European and English novelistic genres, but also to those interested in theoretical perspectives of modern fiction studies in general, as well as in certain aspects of Western literature as a developing tradition.

Metaphorically speaking, the nineteenth-century English Bildungsroman, dealing with the principle of identity formation, parallels Victorian fiction as a whole, revealing the completion of its own formation, which began in the eighteenth century. Significantly, the most important and popular Victorian novels are Bildungsromane, in which authors construct or rather reconstruct their own life experiences as formative processes. This book shows that the Bildungsroman has a development history, is a specific literary system, and consists of a thematic and narrative pattern. It details the entrance of this newly established fictional tradition into Victorian culture and literature through Carlyle’s threefold literary reception of the novel of formation and its subsequent flourishing and complexity. In this respect, a number of novelistic works are scrutinized, and each faces the question as to whether its thematic and narrative perspectives fit the pattern and shape of the Bildungsroman.

The eminent Harvard educationalist Howard Garner writes a preface to the Place Model within his Good Project Blog which provides a preface to this timely book. Professional is a slippery term, open to willful abuse, misuse and misunderstanding – as evidenced by the ways in which this chameleon term can be used as both a compliment and an insult. In this book academics from a range of professional fields deconstruct ‘professional’ and reimagine professionals in an age of rapid change where professionals are both increasingly in demand and frequently under threat. Several deploy the lens of Clarke’s Place Model to examine professions including teaching, midwifery, social work, journalism, and optometry. Some papers are empirical and some are based around using the Place Model as a thought experiment. All turn a critical eye on professionals and all find them to be, like all humans, neither devils nor divines (Maya Angelou), but at their best a combination of two indispensable characteristics, trustworthiness and expertise.

From David Lean's big screen Great Expectations to Alejandro Amenábar's reinvention of The Turn of the Screw as The Others, adaptations of literary classics are a constant feature of popular culture today. The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies helps students master the history, theory and practice of analysing literary adaptations. Following an introductory overview of major debates and concepts, each chapter focuses on a canonical text and features: - Case study readings of adaptations in a variety of media, from film to opera, televised drama to animated comedy show, YA fiction to novel/graphic novel. - Coverage of popular appropriations and re-imaginings of the text. - Discussion questions and creative exercises throughout to guide students through their own analyses. - Annotated guides to further reading and viewing plus online resources. - The book also includes chapter overviews and a glossary of critical terms to give students quick access to key information for further study, reference and revision. The Bloomsbury Introduction to Adaptation Studies covers adaptations of: Jane Eyre; Great Expectations; The Turn of the Screw; The Great Gatsby.