"Gender and Genre" : A Feminist Exploration of the Bildungsroman in A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man and Martha Quest

Sammanfattning: The predominant focus on the male protagonist in the Bildungsroman genre has provoked feminist critics to offer a re-definition of the genre, claiming that the female protagonist's development differs in significant ways from the traditionally expected course of development (i.e. male). A feminist comparison between A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man and Martha Quest found, unexpectedly, that the female protagonist follows the traditional Bildungsroman trajectory in several respects, whereas the male protagonist deviates from it. A Portrait emphasizes the themes of childhood, formal education and religion, while in Martha Quest the themes of family relations, informal education, sexuality and marriage are treated at length. Martha Quest as an example of a female Bildungsroman deals specifically with the issues of role models, gender roles and gender inequality, which neither the traditional Bildungsroman nor A Portrait does.