The Bildungsroman (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Second Revised Edition)
Background
Who has not been told that one learns more about oneself from failures than from successes? Is there a more reliable theme to draw readers than success following chronic failure? Literature’s undying story line is the determined progress of an unlikely hero against the odds.
Traditional fiction has no more crucial mandate than that by the end the protagonist exhibit major change: Proud Oedipus the king becomes blind Oedipus the exile. Although audiences in the golden age of Greek drama may have undergone catharsis in witnessing Sophocles’ play concerning...
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