Bildungsroman in a Genocidal Age

<i>The Bildungsroman in a Genocidal Age</i> argues that the humanist ideal of <i>Bildung</i> the cultivation of the potentialities of the self through self-reflection travel and varied social intercourse has been revitalized in an age of genocidal violence. It examines the <i>Bildungsroman</i>as<i></i>a flourishing intermedial genre encompassing contemporary historical fiction historical feature films and children's and YA literature. Analysing a number of highly influential novels and films about the Holocaust and World War II (WWII) the book argues that the narrative strategies of the <i>Bildungsroman</i> <i></i>which includes a swerve away from 'home' and its parochialism and moral certainties has contributed to shaping audience perceptions of traumatic histories and their ethical implications in the twenty-first century. <br/> <br/><i>The Bildungsroman in a Genocidal Age</i>examines some of the most keenly discussed and controversial historical fictions of recent decades including <i>The Remains of the Day</i>(1989) <i>The Kindly Ones</i>(2006 English trans. 2009) <i>The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas</i>(2006) and Margarethe von Trotta's biopic <i>Hannah Arendt</i>(2012). It argues that in portraying a protagonist who defers or refuses a prescribed social destiny these novels and films are sensitive to the 'Eichmann problematic' of the 'banality of evil' as formulated by Hannah Arendt. These <i>Bildungsromane</i> <i></i>the study suggests are designed to address the problem of the social reproduction of normative unimaginative and conformist mindsets that can enable totalitarian politics and genocidal policies.