Narratives of Female Development in the 20th Century: Inadequacy, Rebellion, and the Feminist Bildungsroman in Woolf, Plath & Kraus

Abstract

In this thesis, the phenomenon of the Feminist Bildungsroman is proposed, with the use of three 20th-century novels that depict the lives and development of women and which are written by female authors. It examines the way female development is portrayed and how this can be compared to the genre of the Bildungsroman, and the notion of the female Bildungsroman which are “Bildungsromane by and about women” (McWilliams 2). Within this context, it examines if the phenomenon of the Feminist Bildungsroman is in fact a genre on its own. This thesis analyses Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1927), Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (1963) and Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick (1998), which are situated within the genre of the Bildungsroman. These novels are analysed through a close-reading of the primary texts, looking at, for example, literary devices used in the novels. The characteristics which were found were the feeling of inadequacy within these women regarding the expectations created by the status quo regarding gender as well as the finalisation of their development through rebellion against the status quo established by this patriarchy. It concludes with the notion that these characteristics deviate from the conventional Bildungsroman and can be regarded as characteristic of a new genre: The Feminist Bildungsroman.