Bildungsroman

I controlled my desire to write about the Bildungsroman genre as long as I could. But, of course, I was destined to fail. Every time I have looked at the Kindle bestseller list (by Amazon), the first several spots on the list were occupied by Stephenie Meyer's The Twilight Saga. I'm neither planning to read it, nor suggesting that anybody should. I am glad to observe, however, that this representative of the Bildungsroman genre is hugely popular among teenagers.

Critics have been announcing the imminent death of the genre for decades. The only problem with this prediction is that the readers and the writers do not seem to care. Bildungsromane continue to appear in print and sell in huge numbers. This means that my field of research will never stop being relevant.