My Favorite Literary Term: Bildungsroman
I'm getting ready to start my last unit with the seniors for the year. I'm going to be leading the seniors through an author study: looking at multiple works form one person to get a better idea of that author's style and point of view.
For this, I have tried to choose an author who reflects a modern view of the American Dream. I have chosen to use Sherman Alexie for this study. The man has written poetry, non-fiction, short stories, novels, and movie scripts so there is lots of materials to pull from.
As an added bonus, he is from the area around my home town, Spokane, Washington. I figure that I may as well choose someone who writes about an area I can add some personal experience about.
Getting to the point now, Sherman Alexie has written a book
or two
that gives me a reason to teach this literary term: Bildungsroman.
What? How do you say that word?
BILL-dungz-ro-man
And what does this fun to say literary term mean? Well, this is a word that refers to a genre of writing where the main character grows intellectually and emotionally due to struggle and adversity. This area of literature is also known as the "coming of age" story.
I will be using one of the short stories out of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" that shows how Victor realizes that he needs to man up, stop acting like a child, when his father dies. This is also an interesting take on the concept of the American Dream because the Native American view of the American Dream is so drastically different from the traditional one held by many Americans of European decent.
We will see how it goes in the next few weeks.
For this, I have tried to choose an author who reflects a modern view of the American Dream. I have chosen to use Sherman Alexie for this study. The man has written poetry, non-fiction, short stories, novels, and movie scripts so there is lots of materials to pull from.
As an added bonus, he is from the area around my home town, Spokane, Washington. I figure that I may as well choose someone who writes about an area I can add some personal experience about.
Getting to the point now, Sherman Alexie has written a book
or two that gives me a reason to teach this literary term: Bildungsroman.What? How do you say that word?
BILL-dungz-ro-man
And what does this fun to say literary term mean? Well, this is a word that refers to a genre of writing where the main character grows intellectually and emotionally due to struggle and adversity. This area of literature is also known as the "coming of age" story.
I will be using one of the short stories out of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" that shows how Victor realizes that he needs to man up, stop acting like a child, when his father dies. This is also an interesting take on the concept of the American Dream because the Native American view of the American Dream is so drastically different from the traditional one held by many Americans of European decent.
We will see how it goes in the next few weeks.
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