bildungsroman

Advancedzipf 1.87

Pronunciation

/ˈbɪldʊŋzrəʊˌmɑːn/(BIL-doongz-roh-mahn)

Part of speech

nounformal

Chinese

成长小说；教育小说

Definition

A novel dealing with one person's formative years or spiritual education.

Word family

  • (no common derivatives)

Collocations

  • classic bildungsroman
  • modern bildungsroman
  • a bildungsroman about
  • bildungsroman tradition

Examples

  1. 1."Great Expectations" is a classic bildungsroman, tracing Pip's moral and social development. (coming-of-age novel)
  2. 2.Many first novels are essentially bildungsromans drawing on the author's own youth. (education/growth novel)

Synonyms

  • coming-of-age story /ˌkʌmɪŋəvˈeɪdʒ/ (story about growing up)
  • (no precise single-word synonym)

Etymology

from German "Bildung" (education/formation) + "Roman" (novel) — a novel about the formation of character