Yes, -bildungsroman- is an American literary-theoretical term. Of course the current manifestations of the bildungsroman would surely cause the authors of the German Enlightenment who were instrumental in establishing the genre to roll over in their graves! We will concisely trace the development the bildungsroman in order to focus on the contemporary ethnic, often significantly autobiographical, novels which revolve around (imagined) perceptions of and by ethnic Others. These books - vividly and movingly - tend to stress the challenges and pain of transcultural interaction rather than its easy successes, and the young protagonists are often injured physically and psychologically on both sides of the ethnic line. The migrant protagonist's negotiation with the push and pull of diasporic influences provides an axis unimagined in the traditional bildungsroman. Although some of the ethnic subjects are crushed, most of them develop individualistic strategies for interacting with their often hostile environment at home and school as well as in the community and the diaspora. Ultimately, the strong, maturing protagonists actively seek some transformations and resist others, choosing to defy unviable cultural impositions from all strands of their heritage. This seminar is a component of the research project on transculturality and perceptions of the immigrant Other being undertaken by University of Siegen and Norfolk State University and subsidized by SDAW (-Stiftung für Deutsch-Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen-) > see http://www.uni-siegen.de/fb3/forschung/anglistik/projects/fromheresandcomeheres.pdf A symposium on this topic with colleagues from Norfolk will take place on Monday, June 14 (18-21.30 h) and Tuesday, June 15 (8:30-10 h); the HS participants will be attending this international symposium, and can even contribute to it for extra CPs. The primary literature and theory for the HS will not be repeated from last semester's courses, although students who have attended my courses from WS 2009/10 will have a broader basis for comparison with regard to the ethnic bildungsroman. So far we have only read the beginning of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (by Junot Díaz, 2008), however, and we will read this Pulitzer Prize-winning book in its entirety for the new SoSe seminar. The conflicted but zanily humorous story of the youthful Oscar who has immigrated from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey interweaves with the intra-generational coming-of-age narratives of his family members and that of the feisty Dominican narrator himself. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) will serve as our touchstone of the -classic- ethnic bildungsroman.
Please purchase copies of these two books: Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (originally published in 1969; any edition you can obtain economically will be fine) Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008) All of the theory and excerpts from novels will be included in the seminar -reader-, which will be available at the beginning of the semester. Anglistik - Sprachpraxis Universität Siegen SoSe 2010 Ph.D. Waegner Cathy
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