Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler

The fact that the practices of defining a Bildungsroman as a novel narrating the formation of personality, or indiscriminately labelling novels with young or adult protagonists as Bildungsroman, are controversial and show the vagueness of this subgenre. Given that developmental psychology has shown...

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Main Author:	Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2013
Subjects:	Bildungsromans Bildungsromans - History and criticism Social conflict in literature
Online Access:	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/38515/1/FBMK%202013%205%20IR.pdf
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spelling	my-upm-ir.385152016-01-12T06:44:10Z Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler 2013-02 Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani The fact that the practices of defining a Bildungsroman as a novel narrating the formation of personality, or indiscriminately labelling novels with young or adult protagonists as Bildungsroman, are controversial and show the vagueness of this subgenre. Given that developmental psychology has shown that the quality of man‘s personality development is different at different stages of life—with the personality development of an adult literary character differing from that of a young character— there is a need to classify a subgenre of the Bildungsroman which deals with protagonists who are middle-aged. The first to recognise this need is Margaret Morganroth Gullette, who not only coined the term ―midlife Bildungsroman,‖ but also attempts to show that only authors who have undergone midlife transitions themselves can write such novels. However, Gullette‘s approach suffers from a number of drawbacks, primarily from her employment of an eclectic intertextual psycho-biographical meth d, in which intrinsic and extrinsic approaches are mixed together with psycho-biographical analyses of the authors‘ lives. This study will therefore explore the possibility of presenting a more complete theoretical framework to analyse the major psychological and psychosocial conflicts faced by the protagonists of four such midlife Bildungsromans, namely Saul Bellow‘s Seize the Day (1956) and Herzog (1964), as well as in Anne Tyler‘s Morgan‟s Passing (1980) and Back When We Were Grownups (2001). This framework will be based on two phenomena, individuation and midlife identity crisis. To discuss these concepts, a triangular theoretical approach, based on Jungian, Eriksonian and Levinsonian adult development theories will be used to show that midlife Bildungsromans are structured on a series of related psychological conflicts and tasks that allow for the classification of the subgenre as distinct from the conventional Bildungsroman. This study indicates and tests a pattern of adulthood individuation, consisting disintegration-midlife crisis-reintegration, as a fixed narrative pattern in midlife Bildungsromans. Bildungsromans Bildungsromans - History and criticism Social conflict in literature 2013-02 Thesis http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/38515/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/38515/1/FBMK%202013%205%20IR.pdf application/pdf en public phd doctoral Universiti Putra Malaysia Bildungsromans Bildungsromans - History and criticism Social conflict in literature
institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
collection	PSAS Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	Bildungsromans Bildungsromans - History and criticism Social conflict in literature
spellingShingle	Bildungsromans Bildungsromans - History and criticism Social conflict in literature Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
description	The fact that the practices of defining a Bildungsroman as a novel narrating the formation of personality, or indiscriminately labelling novels with young or adult protagonists as Bildungsroman, are controversial and show the vagueness of this subgenre. Given that developmental psychology has shown that the quality of man‘s personality development is different at different stages of life—with the personality development of an adult literary character differing from that of a young character— there is a need to classify a subgenre of the Bildungsroman which deals with protagonists who are middle-aged. The first to recognise this need is Margaret Morganroth Gullette, who not only coined the term ―midlife Bildungsroman,‖ but also attempts to show that only authors who have undergone midlife transitions themselves can write such novels. However, Gullette‘s approach suffers from a number of drawbacks, primarily from her employment of an eclectic intertextual psycho-biographical meth d, in which intrinsic and extrinsic approaches are mixed together with psycho-biographical analyses of the authors‘ lives. This study will therefore explore the possibility of presenting a more complete theoretical framework to analyse the major psychological and psychosocial conflicts faced by the protagonists of four such midlife Bildungsromans, namely Saul Bellow‘s Seize the Day (1956) and Herzog (1964), as well as in Anne Tyler‘s Morgan‟s Passing (1980) and Back When We Were Grownups (2001). This framework will be based on two phenomena, individuation and midlife identity crisis. To discuss these concepts, a triangular theoretical approach, based on Jungian, Eriksonian and Levinsonian adult development theories will be used to show that midlife Bildungsromans are structured on a series of related psychological conflicts and tasks that allow for the classification of the subgenre as distinct from the conventional Bildungsroman. This study indicates and tests a pattern of adulthood individuation, consisting disintegration-midlife crisis-reintegration, as a fixed narrative pattern in midlife Bildungsromans.
format	Thesis
qualification_name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level	Doctorate
author	Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani
author_facet	Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani
author_sort	Koloor, Keyhan Bahmani
title	Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
title_short	Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
title_full	Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
title_fullStr	Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
title_full_unstemmed	Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler
title_sort	major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife bildungsromans of saul bellow and anne tyler
granting_institution	Universiti Putra Malaysia
publishDate	2013
url	http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/38515/1/FBMK%202013%205%20IR.pdf
_version_	1747811725070041088

Major psychological and psycho-social conflicts and tasks in selected midlife Bildungsromans of Saul Bellow and Anne Tyler

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