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Sunday, April 16, 2006

A “National Bildungsroman”?

Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman on 04/16/06 at 01:53 PM

The concept, not to mention that particular phrase, appears regularly in secondary literature about Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper. Not so much online as in books like George Dekker’s The American Historical Romance. Were my German up-to-speed, I’d be able to quickly discern whether nationalroman covers this ground. If it did, I could speak neatly of the interlace of bildungs- and nationalroman.

My question is whether a more concise form exists, as I need to find more secondary literature on the phenomena itself and would like to pepper my chapter with some more elegant phrase. Yes, I want to pepper with elegance. What I wouldn’t do to avoid this fate!*

*Learn to write English good. I mean, I should be a great writer. I read all the time. Everyone knows that to read makes your writing English good.

Comments

Not sure if this helps, but you might look into research on the 18th century, largely if not entirely Irish and Scottish, genre of the “national tale.”

But the use of the bildungsroman genre in historical fiction is a topic that, to my knowledge, sorely needs attention. Dekkar’s a great place to start, because he gives great attention to the Scottish enlightenment philosophies of development behind historical fiction. But we still see the national bildungsroman today—I’m thinking about contemporary historical novels, like *Billy Bathgate* or Joanna Scott’s *The Manikin*, or even proto-historical fiction such as Jessica Hagedorn’s *Dogeaters* and Albert Murray’s quartet. In all of these, a national “growing up” is mapped over an individual’s growing up. Perhaps this is something largely American, insofar as the U.S. national narrative is often about the shift from innocence to experience (as in so many of Hawthorne’s historical twice-told tales).

By on 04/16/06 at 04:48 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Well, you’ve nailed the heart of this chapter: I’m explicitly looking at the way in which an individual’s development is mapped onto a national one, or if not mapped, then the manner in which each variously stands in for the other. I’m delighted to hear that this project starts and, in important way, currently ends with Dekker, as that both validates my wavering faith in my research skills and means my project may be more timely than I’d thought. I’ll look into the work on the “national tale,” but I’ve unfortunately exhausted all the Hawthornian ways.

By Scott Eric Kaufman on 04/16/06 at 05:14 PM | Permanent link to this comment

You’d probably need to touch on Lukacs’ _The Historical Novel_, at least as background.

By on 04/16/06 at 06:57 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Might be helpful to check out Katie Trumpener’s _Bardic Nationalisms_—first two chapters are extended excavations of nat’l tale and historical tale in Romantic Ireland and Scotland respectively.

FWIW, I have to think that the appeal of _The Kite Runner_ is of its neat imagination of the dovetailing of personal life/ national history in Afghanistan. Using motifs of foster brothers and descents into the cinematically tribal that would have done Cooper and Scott (Walter Scott, that is) proud.

By on 04/16/06 at 07:31 PM | Permanent link to this comment

G’day,
the concept of a national bildungsroman is one that I’m currently researching and reading around. I haven’t come across such a term, although ‘zeitroman’ comes close. There are a few good books on the bildungsroman around: Franco Moretti’s ‘The way of the world: The bildungsroman in European Culture’ ( Verso: 1987) is excellent, and (now that I look at the title) this might be relevant: Todd Kontje’s ‘The German Bildungsroman: History of a national genre’ (Camden House: 1993). There’s also a collection of essays on the genre in : ‘Reflection and Action: essays on the Bildungsroman’ ed. James Hardin (U Sth Carolina P: 1991).

By on 04/25/06 at 11:38 PM | Permanent link to this comment

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Sunday, April 16, 2006

A “National Bildungsroman”?

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