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by Gregory Castle (Editor), Sarah L. Townsend (Editor), Matthew L. Reznicek (Editor)
The classical Bildungsroman charted an idealized path of human development: the harmonizing of individual desires and societal norms in the formation of a well-rounded liberal subject. But what happens when this Enlightenment blueprint for self-cultivation runs up against the particularities of a colonial society riven by nationalism, revolution, and uneven modernization?
The Irish Bildungsroman provides the first comprehensive study of how this quintessentially bourgeois and European genre is transformed and reinvented by Irish writers from the Act of Union to the present day. Through incisive readings of over two centuries of Irish novels, the volume's contributors illuminate the diverse narrative strategies Irish authors have employed to depict personal formation within colonial and postcolonial communities shaped by competing religious, class, gender, and ethnic interests.
Author Biography
Gregory Castle is professor emeritus of English at Arizona State University. He is the author of numerous publications, including Reading the Modernist Bildungsroman.
Sarah L. Townsend is associate professor of English at the University of New Mexico. Matthew L. Reznicek is associate professor of medical humanities at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
