The Development of the Artist as a Young Man: Is James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man convincing as a Bildungsroman?

A Bildungsroman is a novel that portrays the realistic and gradual development of its main character. It features a clash between the individual and the expectations set forth by societal norms. A Bildungsroman novel has to adhere to set rules and characteristics of the genre that include but are not limited to: a conflict between generations, isolation from society, a search for identity and a spiritual or religious crisis. Academics disagree whether A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce should be classified as a Bildungsroman. Some academics state that the novel is an archetypal Bildungsroman novel due to the subject and theme of the novel while others argue that its Modernist influences exclude it from the genre. This thesis examines how convincing the novel is as a Bildungsroman by studying Stephen’s gradual development, composing of a change in behaviour, actions, thoughts and narrative, and taking a closer look at the gradual change in sentence structure and vocabulary that take place. It will examine Joyce’s use of literary tools including symbolism, metaphors and stream-of-consciousness to provide more depth to the story and how well the novel fits within the confines of the genre by looking at rules and guidelines set forth by academics. This includes a brief context on the Bildungsroman, its origin and how it is defined by academics and a look at how Modernism, along with other literary movements, and the Bildungsroman complement each other. My conclusion is that A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is convincing as a Bildungsroman. Through the use of stream-of-consciousness, a nonlinear timeline, gradual complexity of the language and various linguistic and thematic choices, Joyce uses Modernist literary tools to create a new kind of Bildungsroman that still adheres to set guidelines and characteristics of the genre and can therefore be classified as a Bildungsroman novel