bildungsroman

noun bil·dungs·ro·man \ ˈbil-du̇ŋ(k)s-rō-ˌmän , -du̇ŋz- \

|Updated on: 30 May 2018

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of bildungsroman

literature : a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character

a bildungsroman by Charles Dickens

bildungsroman was our Word of the Day on 09/23/2011. Hear the podcast!

Recent Examples of bildungsroman from the Web

Starring Angela Lansbury, the story serves as a collective bildungsroman of the four March sisters, who seek to navigate life—at home, at work, and in love— during the American Civil War.

— noor brara, Vogue, "Here’s What to Watch This Summer on TV," 21 May 2018
In mounting Amy Ludwig’s adaptation of Sandra Cisneros’ bildungsroman about a young Latina in Chicago, Teatro Visión uses an all-youth ensemble for the first time.

— chronicle staff report, San Francisco Chronicle, "Bay Area arts and entertainment picks for May 18-20," 17 May 2018
In mounting Amy Ludwig’s adaptation of Sandra Cisnero’s bildungsroman about a young Latina in Chicago, Teatro Visión uses an all-youth ensemble for the first time.

— lily janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, "Lily Janiak’s theater picks, May 13," 10 May 2018
This artist’s bildungsroman has enough on its hands wrestling with complex questions about art-making, integrity and the ethics of ambition.

— kate greathead, New York Times, "Three Sparkling Debuts, Joined by New York City," 4 May 2018
Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater is a new kind of bildungsroman.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "Freshwater: A Coming-of-Age Story Containing Multitudes," 1 Mar. 2018
After establishing the conflicts and desires of the adults, the narrative becomes a bildungsroman.

— angela flournoy, New York Times, "How Langston Hughes Brought His Radical Vision to the Novel," 2 Jan. 2018
The book, with its high-tide-low-tide rhythm of hope and disillusionment, is a bildungsroman mapped onto a political career.

— katy waldman, Slate Magazine, "This memoir by a former White House speechwriter (and joke writer) is irresistibly charming. It also feels like the setup for a grim cosmic punch line.," 29 Sep. 2017
Is that the most grating part of Avery’s lively, dishy bildungsroman on skates, Ice Capades: A Memoir of Fast Living and Tough Hockey (written with Michael McKinley)?

— jack dickey, SI.com, "Sean Avery Falls Short of Fearless Truth-Teller Reputation in 'Ice Capades'," 24 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bildungsroman.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Bildungsroman is the combination of two German words: Bildung, meaning "education," and Roman, meaning "novel." Fittingly, a "bildungsroman" is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character - in particular, his or her psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over and a life of usefulness ahead. Goethe's late 18th-century work Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship) is often cited as the classic example of this type of novel. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, in recent years, some English speakers have begun to apply the term to films that deal with a youthful character's coming-of-age.