Joseph’s Bildungsroman Article

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The article that I read on the Bildungsroman was, Modernist Studies and the Bildungsroman: A Historical Survey of Critical Trends by Tobias Boes.

The Bildungsroman is a “novel of formation.” “Bild” means to “form.” This is referring to a natural or organic type of formation, the way a plant grows.

This article talks about the changes of the definition and types of literature categorized under the Bildungsroman. In the 1980s and 90s, the study of feminism and minorities grew and this led to the evolution of the original Bildungsroman definition. Now it was to include the coming-of-age stories which are quite different from the nineteenth-century European types.

Tobias Boes mentions Mikhail Bakhtin’s work, “The Bildungsroman and Its Significance in the Historyof Realism.”

Bakhtin describes the Bildingsroman as:

[The hero] emerges along with the world and he reflects the historical emergence
of the world itself. He is no longer within an epoch, but on the border between
two epochs, at the transition point from one to the other. This transition is
accomplished in him and through him . . . It is as though the very foundations of
the world are changing, and man must change along with them. (23–4) (Boes 236)

Boes also mentions Claudine Raynaud’s definition of Bildungsroman to include that the moment of maturity in African American stories is the protagonist’s awareness of racism. This awareness is very crucial to their development. The article continues to say that the novel of formation is more like “the novel of development.”

Mark Stein describes a dual function of the protagonist:

“The hero no longer merely changes with the world; instead, the world also changes
with and through him.”

Link to: Modernist Studies and the Bildungsroman: A Historical Survey of Critical Trends by Tobias Boes.<http://www.tobiasboes.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Boes_Modernist.pdf>

Joseph’s Introduction

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Hello Everyone!

I chose this picture because I like to joke and have fun. Life is too short to be taken too seriously.

I was born in East LA and have lived here my entire life. My parents are both Mexican. My dad was born in silao, Guanajuato and he came to the united states when he was fifteen.I am a Biology Major, and commute to school from east la.

I am very passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. I eat mostly organic fruits and vegetables that have been grown without pesticides, and herbicides. I also try to eat mostly chicken that has been raised free range without hormones and grass-fed beef as opposed to the the genetically modified corn fed cows. I do not believe in using allopathic medicine( non-prescription and prescription drugs and surgery) to treat illness and disease. I think it is helpful in some emergency and crisis situations though. I use holistic and natural means to cure any sickness or ailments. I love to work out as a hobby/stress reliever/energy booster. I also love to read inspirational and motivational books. Its really important to me to keep a healthy positive mind as well as a healthy body.

I love to spend time with my family! They are very important to me.

Discussion Questions: Cherrie Moraga – Loving in the War Years

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Reading assignment for Monday, September 17. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. You do not need to answer these specific questions, but response should demonstrate you’ve done the reading and thought about the text.

Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

What parts of Moraga’s book read as a coming-of-age story?  How does coming of age relate to Chicana identity? To her identity as a lesbian?

 What is Moraga’s relationship to her father?  To her mother?  How do those relationships shape her development?
What are some of the “vendidas” Moraga owns? Do you see it relating to her connection with various movements’ politics?
(Note: Class will meet in VDA 040.)

Bildungsroman and Gangs

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The article I picked to show a representation of Bildungsroman, was from the Journal of American Culture, by Josephine Metcalf. The article by Metcalf, Josephine “Monster, Dreams, and Cultural Studies: Exploring Gang Memoir and Political Autobiography”. This article deals with two different, but yet similar individuals that took different paths to where they ended up at. The Journal of American Culture, 34: 391-401 article deals with presidents Barack Obama and convicted gang member Sanyika Shakur.

This article shows how both individuals had to deal with issues facing the minority communities like feminism, gay activism, AIDS awareness, anti-racism, and multiculturalism. In the book “Dreams From my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance”, by Barack Obama, he used the negative issues he face as a child and tried to make a difference by reading, and learning new words that expanded his learning. He also used his personal experiences from going to school as a child in Indonesia, and back in the state. He was an outside in his schools, and was always asked silly questions about his African father. he used these negative experiences to motivate himself to strive for something better. So he used what learned as a child, and went to Chicago and started helping the minority groups for better services, and education.

Sanyika Shakur’s Monster: The Autobiography of an LA Gang Member, writes a book explaining the reason why he fell into the gang life. While growing up in the 1980’s, Shakur a young youth  had to deal with the budget cuts of the later president Reagan. Shakur was suspended from elementary school for throwing a gang sign durning the picture. During this time Shakur starts to see the easy life of drugs and hanging out with friends. So he starts leaving school and starts to hangout with crip gang members. Even though his mother would scream at him to go to school and learn. But the only thing that he learned was the rough life of being a gang member durning the early 1980-1990’s, with the increase of gang membership and the increased used of a new drug call crack. So this shows up how his  bildungsroman was shaped durning his time as a gang member and as a incarcerated individual in the prison system.

Both individuals faced the same social and economical issues during this time. But as you can see the bildungsroman for both individuals took different turns. Obama went on to learn from the issues he faced, learned by reading books, and went to college where he went on to help the minority communities of Chicago, and later to help the country as our President. Where as Sanyika Shakur, took his childhood experences and took a turn for the worst. Shakur’s bildungsroman took him on a path that would lead him to prison. A life of easy money, drugs, and gang banging shaped him to become a notorious gang member in Los Angeles.

Monster, Dreams, and Cultural Studies: Exploring Gang Memoir and Political Autobiography.

#CHST302 House on Mango Street Tweets

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Here’s a sampling of what our class has being saying on Twitter:

Contemporary Female Bildungsromans

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The most interesting article on bildungsroman I found is Leisha Jones’ “Contemporary Bildungsromans and the Prosumer Girl.” In this piece, Jones examines the modern iteration of the traditional bildungsroman story in the popular young adult book series “Twilight,” written by Stephanie Miller. Although the books analyzed in this article differ greatly from what we will be reading in class, I find the article enlightening in its dissection of how the bildungsroman style can become feminized and modernized, and how reader response and use of social media adds to the coming of age narratives.

Bildungsroman is defined by Jones as a ” novel of formation, learning, maturation, and enlightenment” (445). This is a journey that, “begins with a child coming of age, a rising action event distancing that individual from predetermined assumptions and mores, and the long and arduous process of self-discovery toward a maturity that includes the assimilation of contemporary cultural values and the participation and recognition of that individual by society” (446).Traditionally, Bildungsromans have been about men, as it was popularized in early 19th century Germany. Jones describes the form as becoming less and less widespread in the 20th century, only to have a contemporary resurgence with a few twists. She discusses the growing popularity of the female subject, and how this has called for a particularly feminine bildungsroman based on female social norms and roles. This can include, “learning to be submissive, accepting pain as a female condition, equating sexuality with danger, marrying after the inevitable failure of a rebellious autonomy, and regressing from full societal participation in order to actualize the inconsequential status of the female self” (440). These ideas are not only applicable to “Twilight,” but can be used to analyze any of the narratives we will be reading.

Jones focuses on “Twilight’s” version of the bildungsroman, and particularly how it affects what she refers to as the “prosumer” girl reader, which is a hybrid of producer and consumer. In other words, girls who are not simply readers, but girls who take their reading and produce fan fiction or publish their responses and discussions through websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs. This “digital fan culture” they are partaking in demonstrates the role the novel plays in contemporary readers’ lives, especially when it comes to young girls reading coming of age narratives (454). The narrative becomes more than just a book, it becomes apart of the reader’s-and the popular- consciousness.

Reading Leisha Jones article is highly informative about both traditional and contemporary versions of the bildungsroman. Her creative interpretation of the popular “Twilight” series and its proactive female readers gave me ideas of how to approach the coming of age literature we will be reading in this course, and my own responses via social media sites. Although her subject choice is a far cry from Chicana and Latina literature, her article proves, “The bildungsroman now reflects the diversity of authorial experience, including the lives and cultures of others such as women, the disabled, gays and lesbians, immigrants, the diasporic, and the girl” (446).  This diversity is what I hope to explore in the texts we will be reading, connecting literary traditions with contemporary, culturally-specific life experiences.

 

Leisha Jones. “Contemporary Bildungsromans and the Prosumer Girl.” Criticism 53.3 (2011): 439-469. Project MUSE. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.

Direct Link: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/criticism/v053/53.3.jones.html

Female Bildungsroman

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For my Bildungsroman article, I read Woman on the Verge of a Breakthrough by Erica Frouman-Smith, an article about Liliana Heker’s Book “Zona de clivaje”. Frouman Smith uses modern psychology to explain the differences in men and women’s struggles and then uses these explanations as the framework for today’s female bildungsroman stories. the article claims that men and women have different values as a result of their sex. Boys realize their masculine selves in the separation from the feminine, their mother. Women on the other hand are defined in their connection to their mothers. Thus, men are more individualistic and women more communal in thoughts and values. These values allow female bildungsroman protagonists the space to discover their femininity in a patriarchal society.
In Heker’s novel, Irene is the female protagonist through which Heker expresses her version of a females struggle through a failed relationship. She captures the drama Irene is feeling through her use of narration and in using Irene’s own journal type entires. Irene, having fallen in love with her professor at 17 years old, is introduced at age 30, thirteen years after the relationship. She sees her old flame with his new young girl friend and feels jealous, of course, but also sees in this girl her own naive attributes that she is finally ready to leave behind. Gender roles also play a large role in the development of Irene’s character. Though intelligent and beautiful, as a child Irene never really spoke up around people, i.e. men. This was also a common theme in HOMS where women subjected themselves to men in order to be loved and cared for. The female bildungsroman is concerned with a woman’s position in society and the struggle and self discovery that comes with finding a peace/piece of their own. 

Woman on the Verge of a Breakthrough: Liliana Heker’s “Zona de clivaje” as a Female “Bildungsroman”
ERICA FROUMAN-SMITH
Letras Femeninas , Vol. 19, No. 1/2 (Primavera-Otoño 1993), pp. 100-112
Article Stable URL: http://0-www.jstor.org.linus.lmu.edu/stable/23022247

House on Mango Street

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Cisneros’ novel, with my understanding of Bildungsroman, became more interesting. The idea of Bildungsroman is new to me, but it is very easy to understand. The novel “House on Mango Street” falls into the category of Bildungsroman as Esperanza comes to a realization of who she is. Throughout the story Cisneros talks about the neighborhood, she speaks about her school and her family. She gives us a close look at why she desires a house of her own, her own Petunias and a place for her shoes beside her bed.  She wants a safe and private place in which she can be free and not be judged as to her sexuality.

Cisneros begins her story by remembering all of the places she lived in, she remembers not being stable.  Throughout her novel she speaks of the places she remembers that involve Mango Street.  All her memories come from Mango Street.  At first, Esperanza does not realize that her desire to leave Mango Street symbolizes her leaving her identity in search for a different one. She probably did not like living in a small run down home.  She might have not liked the age difference she had with her younger sister because she could not talk to her about herself and her sexuality.

Knowing where she came from and understanding herself is what it is important.  Knowing once sexuality makes living life a bit easier as one would understand oneself.  Esperanza’s leaving to come back is exploring her sexuality but remembering that she continues to be the same person from Mango Street.  Her sexuality does not make her different.

 

Christina’s (late) Introduction!

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I completely did not see that there was an assignment posted BELOW the post, “First Day of Class.” Oops. Well here I am, two weeks late! 🙂

My name is Christina Marie Ferrada, and I am a senior English major. I’m from southern California, lived here my whole life, and I’m currently commuting from Santa Monica. I love to cook, eat, read, write, go to concerts, hike, and of course, go to the beach. This is my last semester at LMU, and I’m also working two jobs, one on campus and one off campus. Because of that, I am not super involved with many on-campus activities or organizations- I’m just too busy unfortunately.

I took a Chicano/a literature course last year and fell in love with the style, culture, and passion of Chicano/a and Latino/a literature. I am half Chilean and half Irish-American so I have always yearned to feel more Latina than I do American, which has been an interesting path. I don’t speak spanish, which is embarrassing because even my extremely white mother is fluent, (and has the worst accent), and I “studied” Spanish in high school. However, this semester I am taking Spanish 101 for an elective, because one way or another, I NEED to learn! Try not to make fun of me too much for that!

I am so excited to meet you all, to read more Chicana and Latina literature, and to learn more about myself in the process! Poetry is my favorite genre, so I hope we can delve into that in particular. I’m obviously still getting the hang of this blogging process, and I begrudgingly signed up for the twitter account as well, so with all these new learning avenues, this class is already my most interesting.

See you all tonight! 🙂

Here is a picture of what is most precious to me, my small family consisting of my sisters, parents, and my brother in law. 🙂