Teaching & Learning Guide for: Modernist Studies and the Bildungsroman: A Historical Survey of Critical Trends

Abstract

Author's Introduction Since my original survey of scholarship on the modernist Bildungsroman was published three years ago, a number of exciting new additions to the field have appeared. Central among these is Gregory Castle's Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman (2006), an intelligent book‐length study of the genre that is to be especially commended for its introductory chapter, in which Castle surveys some of the differences between the German and British tradition that have so often served as stumbling blocks for previous critics. Additional work by Douglas Mao, Jed Esty and myself is noted below, under the section of ‘Author Recommends’ and the ‘Sample Syllabus’. Author Recommends: Gregory Castle, Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2006). Thoughtful work with detailed readings of modernist Bildungsromane by Wilde, Lawrence, Joyce, Woolf, and others. Should remain a major work in the field for some time to come. The introductory chapter situating the British Bildungsroman is comprehensive and engaging and would make ideal reading for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students. Susan Cocalis, ‘The Transformation of Bildung from an Image to an Ideal’, Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht, deutsche Sprache und deutsche Literatur 70.4 (1978): 399–414. A classic essay explaining the origins of the German conception of Bildung in the late eighteenth‐century. Although it touches on the Bildungsroman only in passing and on modernist fiction not at all, this should be required reading for any instructor of the subject. Also well‐suited for in‐class reports by advanced undergraduate students. Unfortunately, an even better and more recent examination of the rise of Bildung– Georg Bollenbeck's Bildung und Kultur: Glanz und Elend eines deutschen Deutungsmusters (1994) – is available only in German. Jed Esty, ‘Virgins of Empire: The Last December and the Antidevelopmental Plot’, Modern Fiction Studies 53.2 (2007): 257–75. Engaging essay on Elizabeth Bowen's 1929 novel that uses the Bildungsroman tradition to interrogate the relationship between modernist fiction and colonialism, as well as the trappings of Anglo‐Irish identity. For further work by Esty, see the ‘Sample Syllabus’ below. Joseph Slaughter, Human Rights, Inc.: The World Novel, Narrative Form and International Law (New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2007). A complex work that argues for a formal homology between the Bildungsroman and the discourse of human rights law. Winner of the 2008 René Wellek Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association. Densely argued and only suitable for the most advanced undergraduate readers. Also does not engage the modernist period directly. Nevertheless, a book brimming with original insights, and one that does a valuable service in internationalizing Bildungsroman studies. Mark Stein, Black British Literature: Novels of Transformation (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2004). A good example of the many new directions in which the field has recently...

The Developmental Relations among Mind, Brain and Education

“…These schools can be said to focus on different aspects identified by Damasio as components of the self. Bildung is the education you give yourself" (see also Boes, 2006Boes, , 2009). Mindfulness meditation, and other spiritual exercises (what is sometimes called "contemplative science") are gaining advocates for their incorporation within the public school system (Rosch, 2008;13 The noun "Bildung" has several meanings, which is why the term is often left untranslated.…”