Characters and Voices- The Bildungsroman Tradition in Selected Third Generation Nigerian Novels
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- NGN 3000
Background to the Study
Early twenty-first century witnessed the emergence of new voices in Nigerian literature, especially, the novel genre.These voices whom Pius Adesanmi and Chris Dunton have labelled “Third Generation,” may have consciously adopted the German Bildungsroman tradition. The style of exploring the moral and psychological growth of the main character has become ubiquitous in most contemporary Nigerian novels. In his A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams defines the Bildungsroman as: “the development of the protagonist‟s mind and character, in the passage from childhood through varied experiences and often through a spiritual crisis into maturity, which usually involves recognition of one‟s identity and role in the new world” (193). Despite Abram‟s broad illustration of the form, most critics continue to question its existence and viability within and beyond German literature.The genres flexibility allows for varieties across cultures and gives it a universal appeal. Bildungsromanis believed to originate from Germany in late eighteenth century, spread to various Western countries in the nineteenth century, and to other parts of the world in the twentieth and twenty-first century. Germanist and non-Germanist scholars continue to debate over particular texts as prototypes, main thematic and narrative features,and its consideration as a literary genre or subgenre. Susan Gohlman opine that “there is no agreement on what constitute a Bildungsroman or which novels belong to the tradition” (228). Franco Moretti writes that:“If history can make Cultural forms necessary, it can make them impossible as well, and this is what the war [WW1] did to the Bildungsroman” (229). Moretti thinks that the 2 form ended with the world wars. Heargues that the world wars impacted negativity on the development of the Bildungsroman andobserves that modernism became the framework of artistic expression after the wars. Modernism rejects traditional ways and embrace new ideas. Modernist fiction emphasise the individual rather than society. It deals with the condition of man. The classical Bildungsroman follows the development and integration of a male protagonist, but the modernist hero refuse to be assimilated because he has lost faith in the society. James Joyce,A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man appeared at a time when many scholars regard the Bildungsroman as a phase that has ended. A Portrait narrates Stephen Dadalus Journey from childhood to the years of maturity. It concentrates on Stephen‟s spiritual liberation from the bonds of family, nationality and religion. Dadalus, experiences the theme of alienation, exile and enstrangement that mark the novel as a modernist Bildungsroman (Mahadin etal 17).
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