Formative Fictions

Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism, and the Bildungsroman

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, European, German
Cover of the book Formative Fictions by Tobias Boes, Cornell University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Tobias Boes ISBN: 9780801465215
Publisher: Cornell University Press Publication: November 15, 2012
Imprint: Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library Language: English
Author: Tobias Boes
ISBN: 9780801465215
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publication: November 15, 2012
Imprint: Cornell University Press and Cornell University Library
Language: English

The Bildungsroman, or "novel of formation," has long led a paradoxical life within literary studies, having been construed both as a peculiarly German genre, a marker of that country's cultural difference from Western Europe, and as a universal expression of modernity. In Formative Fictions, Tobias Boes argues that the dual status of the Bildungsroman renders this novelistic form an elegant way to negotiate the diverging critical discourses surrounding national and world literature.

Since the late eighteenth century, authors have employed the story of a protagonist's journey into maturity as a powerful tool with which to facilitate the creation of national communities among their readers. Such attempts always stumble over what Boes calls "cosmopolitan remainders," identity claims that resist nationalism's aim for closure in the normative regime of the nation-state. These cosmopolitan remainders are responsible for the curiously hesitant endings of so many novels of formation.

In Formative Fictions, Boes presents readings of a number of novels—Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Karl Leberecht Immermann’s The Epigones, Gustav Freytag’s Debit and Credit, Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, and Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus among them—that have always been felt to be particularly "German" and compares them with novels by such authors as George Eliot and James Joyce to show that what seem to be markers of national particularity can productively be read as topics of world literature.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Bildungsroman, or "novel of formation," has long led a paradoxical life within literary studies, having been construed both as a peculiarly German genre, a marker of that country's cultural difference from Western Europe, and as a universal expression of modernity. In Formative Fictions, Tobias Boes argues that the dual status of the Bildungsroman renders this novelistic form an elegant way to negotiate the diverging critical discourses surrounding national and world literature.

Since the late eighteenth century, authors have employed the story of a protagonist's journey into maturity as a powerful tool with which to facilitate the creation of national communities among their readers. Such attempts always stumble over what Boes calls "cosmopolitan remainders," identity claims that resist nationalism's aim for closure in the normative regime of the nation-state. These cosmopolitan remainders are responsible for the curiously hesitant endings of so many novels of formation.

In Formative Fictions, Boes presents readings of a number of novels—Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, Karl Leberecht Immermann’s The Epigones, Gustav Freytag’s Debit and Credit, Alfred Döblin’s Berlin Alexanderplatz, and Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus among them—that have always been felt to be particularly "German" and compares them with novels by such authors as George Eliot and James Joyce to show that what seem to be markers of national particularity can productively be read as topics of world literature.

More books from Cornell University Press

Cover of the book Women in Old Norse Society by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Hell and Its Rivals by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book The Smile of the Human Bomb by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Queen of Vaudeville by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Novel Translations by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Smartups by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Murder Most Russian by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Victorian Interpretation by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Defining Boundaries in al-Andalus by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Out of Practice by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Religion on the Battlefield by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book For Fear of an Elective King by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Reckoning with Homelessness by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Red Brethren by Tobias Boes
Cover of the book Whistleblowers by Tobias Boes
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy