Blog – Eric Holmes

11 April 2026

So, what’s a Bildungsroman anyway?

This might be one of those terms which could win you a square on Jeopardy! A bildungsroman may not be the most common literary term, but it is a label for a specific type of novel. If you know the definition it might impress your literary friends, or it might even get you extra credit on a literature exam. Other than that, it’s just not a term used in everyday language.

The simplest definition is bildungsroman is a coming-of-age novel. I italicize it here because it’s originally a German word, meaning “education novel.” The bildungsroman’s meaning applies to English novels also. A basic bildungsroman is a story of the maturation process of a young person.

A bildungsroman should start with the protagonist in a flawed state, being immature in some aspect. In the novel, the protagonist suffers through trials until eventually matures. Allison Bulger writes, “This focus on personal growth and self-realization—particularly through making and learning from mistakes—remains the key feature of the Bildungsroman” (Bulger).

Ronald B. Tobias, in his book 20 Master Plots, describes a bildungsroman’s plot as “maturation.” He writes that the protagonist “is usually a sympathetic young person whose goals are either confused or not yet formed” (Tobias, 191).

In my upcoming novel, the twelve-year-old protagonist, Matt Finnish, wants to exert a level of independence from his parents as he grows up. This cause many problems until he realizes that learning to apologize is a facet of maturity.

Works Cited

Bulger, Allison. “Bildungsroman.” LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 5 May 2017. Web. 11 Apr 2026.

Tobias, Ronald B. 20 Master Plots. Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.