bildungsroman

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The Word of the Day for July 17 is:

bildungsroman   \BIL-doonks-roh-MAHN ("oo" as in "good")\   noun
     : a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the 
main character 

Example sentence: 
     The critic described Max's first novel as "a typical 
bildungsroman about an angst-ridden youth struggling to find his 
place in the world."

Did you know?
     "Bildungsroman" is the combination of two German 
words: "Bildung," meaning "education," and "Roman," 
meaning "novel." Fittingly, a "bildungsroman" is a novel that 
deals with the formative years of the main character -- in 
particular, his or her psychological development and moral 
education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note 
with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments 
over and a life of usefulness ahead. Goethe's late 18th-century 
work _Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre_ (_Wilhelm Meister's 
Apprenticeship_) is often cited as the classic example of this 
type of novel. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, 
in recent years, some English speakers have begun to apply the 
term to films that deal with a youthful character's coming-of-
age.