The
classical Bildungsroman charted an idealized path of human
development—the harmonization of individual desires with societal norms
in the formation of a well-rounded, liberal subject. But what happens
when this Enlightenment blueprint for self-cultivation runs up against
the particularities of a colonial society riven by nationalism,
revolution, and uneven modernization?

The Irish Bildungsroman provides the first comprehensive study
of how this quintessentially bourgeois and European genre was
transformed and reinvented by Irish writers from the Act of Union to the
present day. Through incisive readings of over two centuries of Irish
novels, the volume’s contributors illuminate the diverse narrative
strategies Irish authors have employed to depict personal formation
within a colonial/postcolonial nation fractured by religion, class,
gender, and ethnic divisions.

Carefully periodized into three major sections, the book maps the
evolution of the Irish Bildungsroman across key historical junctures:
the rise of cultural nationalism in the nineteenth century, the
revolutionary period and emergence of the postcolonial state in the
early twentieth century, and more recent waves of globalization and the
reconfiguration of Irish identity. From Maria Edgeworth’s post-Union
novels to Sally Rooney’s millennial fictions, The Irish Bildungsroman
excavates a rich vein of self-reflexive writing that creatively
reworked this genre to expose the fault lines of liberal humanism and
imagine new modes of selfhood.