bildungsroman

See also: Bildungsroman

English

Alternative forms

• Bildungsroman

Etymology

Borrowed from German Bildungsroman, from Bildung (“education, formation”) +‎ -s- +‎ Roman (“novel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪl.dʊŋzˌɹoʊ.mən/, /ˈbɪl.dʊŋz.ɹoʊˌmɑːn/

Noun

bildungsroman (plural bildungsromans or bildungsromane)

1. A novel tracing the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character, usually from childhood to maturity.
   • 2016 January 25, Adam Kirsch, “What’s great about Goethe?”, in The New Yorker:

     English speakers are more hospitable to fiction in translation, and yet when was the last time you heard someone mention “Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship” or “Elective Affinities,” Goethe’s long fictions? These books have a good claim to have founded two of the major genres of the modern novel—respectively, the Bildungsroman and the novel of adultery.

   • 2020, Frederick Amrine, Goethe and the Myth of the Bildungsroman: Rethinking the Wilhelm Meister Novels, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 2:

     Goethe's honorific assignment to the vanguard of a uniquely German novelistic tradition of the bildungsroman simultaneously places him outside the mainstream of the development of the novel.

Translations

a type of novel

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 教育小說／教育小说 (jiàoyù xiǎoshuō)

• Danish: dannelsesroman c
• Finnish: kehitysromaani (fi)
• French: roman d’apprentissage m, bildungsroman (fr) m
• German: Bildungsroman (de) m
• Hungarian: fejlődésregény (hu)
• Japanese: 教養小説 (kyōyōshōsetsu), ビルドゥングスロマーン (birudunguzuromān)
• Marathi: बिल्डुंग्जरोमान (bilḍuṅgjaromān)
• Spanish: novela de aprendizaje f, novela de formación f
• Swedish: bildningsroman c
• Vietnamese: bildungsroman (vi)

Further reading

• bildungsroman on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “bildungsroman”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from German Bildungsroman.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɪl.duŋs.roːˌmɑn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bil‧dungs‧ro‧man

Noun

bildungsroman m (plural bildungsromans, diminutive bildungsromannetje n)

1. bildungsroman

Synonyms

• vormingsroman

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from German Bildungsroman.

Noun

bildungsroman n (plural bildungsromane)

1. bildungsroman

Declension

	singular			plural
	indefinite	definite		indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bildungsroman	bildungsromanul		bildungsromane	bildungsromanele
genitive-dative	bildungsroman	bildungsromanului		bildungsromane	bildungsromanelor
vocative	bildungsromanule			bildungsromanelor

Spanish

Noun

bildungsroman m (plural bildungsromans)

1. bildungsroman