In literature, a bildungsroman denotes a literary genre that depicts the physical, moral, and psychological growth of a character from childhood to adulthood. While typically attributed to novels, the term bildungsroman can be applied to any text that represents this growth. Bildungsroman works tend to focus on a single character who was traditionally male, but over time authors also began focusing on notable female protagonists as well. The term originates from the German translation of education ("bildung") and novel ("roman").
Some of the most famous examples of bildungsroman works in English literature include James Joyce's The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. These texts imbue their protagonists with childhood innocence at the start and gradually depict the dissolution of that innocence as the characters make their way into adulthood.
While not a novel, Doris Lessing's "Through the Tunnel" can also be considered part of the bildungsroman genre. Using the more compressed form of the short story, Lessing presents Jerry's journey through the rock-tunnel as a single defining moment in one's transition from childhood to adulthood. Over the course of the story, Jerry separates himself from his mother, faces a daunting and near-impossible challenge to which he is compelled, and ultimately accomplishes a feat he never thought possible. In so doing, Jerry develops a stronger sense of self, so much so that he returns to his mother not out of necessity but out of appreciation for his childhood, now behind him. As such, "Through the Tunnel" concentrates the same themes and conventions of the bildungsroman into a brief snapshot of one boy's transformation.
