The article I read, “Romola: A Bildungsroman for Feminists” takes the definition of bildungsroman and sort of redefines it in the work of George Eliot. Mary Gosselink De Jong, the author of the article, defines bildungsroman as this time of growth and fulfillment of characters. The characters in Eliot’s works usually “loose their illusions, discover who they are, and try to find a place in society,” but they are female characters so they wouldn’t necessarily fall under the definition of bildungsroman. But Gosselink De Jong begins arguing that there is a female, or as she calls it, a feminist bildungsroman. It entails women coming to terms with the world at large and being able to define a place for herself in relation to the world.

Gosselink De Jong uses George Eliot’s work Romola to define the feminist bildungsroman. The majority of the article is her giving a summary of the work and how one could view Romola as an example of the feminist bildungsroman. Gosselink De Jong actually argues that she is an example of the feminist bildungsroman, but there are others that could possibly disagree with her. She definitely makes the argument, but she leaves it open for interpretation. Why she argues Romola is an example of the female bildungsroman is because Romola is this educated woman that is breaking free from traditional gender roles. But Gosselink De Jong’s argument goes a little further than that. Romola may be against the hegemonic ideas surrounding marriage and womanhood, but in her rebellion she is reaching out to society at large. Basically Romola can become a better part of the human community when she is not bound by her marriage.

The feminist bildungsroman is basically about letting women define for themselves their own relationship to the world/society/culture etc. for themselves.

I see this related to House on Mango Street in a few ways. I see Esperanza in much of the same way that Gosselink De Jong sees Romola. Esperanza is breaking free from traditional gender roles and trying to give definition to her being without the help from others around her, or at least she is letting them influence her, but she is making her own decisions. Esperanza could also be considered this feminist bildungsroman character because her place in the novel is directly in opposition to the rest of the female characters in story. She is different from the rest of the girls around her and that might be an intimidating position to be in, but I think that Esperanza is more willing to embrace that different position.

Gosselink De Jong, Mary. “‘Romola: A Bildungsroman’ for Feminists” South Atlantic Review, Vol. 49, No. 4 (1984): 75-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3199590