New Perspectives on the European Bildungsroman

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Description

New Perspectives on the European Bildungsroman reflects the change in direction of research on the Bildungsroman, focusing on more psychological, authorial and feminist contents.

Departing from the father of the prototype of the genre, Goethe, the authors trace imperative pathways to its French, British, and Italian counterparts, examining spiritual and female Bildungsromane. A wide-ranging analysis provides fresh insights into the genre through comparative analyses of Bildungsromane both diatopically and diachronically, while critical analysis of novels such as Voltaire's Candide, Charlotte Bront's Jane Eyre, Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, Collodi's Pinocchio, Aleramo's Una donna present new readings of the characters, plots and purposes of the most famous European novels.

Reviews

An essential book that re-orients thinking about a vexed literary genre, bringing out the Masonic background of the Bildungsroman and convincingly presenting the important contribution of women on its variable spectrum. -- Burton Pike, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, City University of New York Graduate Center, USA
Giovanna Summerfield and Lisa Downward place Woolf in an unusually broad and comparative context in their New Perspectives on the European Bildungsroman, tracing the development of the genre from what they argue are its roots in Masonic tradition and literature. * Years Work in English Studies, vol 91, no 1, 2012 *

Author Bio

Giovanna Summerfield is Associate Professor of Italian and French at Auburn University, USA.
Lisa Downward is Assistant Professor of Italian at Marist College, New York, USA.