The Successful Bildungsroman: Transcending Culture

"Coming of age" continues to be a recurrent theme In fiction as writers seek to represent this archetypal experience known to all adults who have been transformed by It. The process of becoming an adult member of a particular culture has been described by psychologists and anthropologists, resulting In numerous out11nes, theories, and definitions for adulthood. However, contemporary thought uncovers many problems In such descriptions of adulthood, arising from the values of the culture Itself, which are In constant change, In prescribing what constitutes adulthood for that particular culture. Feminist scholarship, In turn, calls attention not only to the problem of culture but, more specifically, gender In prescribing what constitutes adulthood for both sexes