An introduction to the most important genre of the novel. We will begin by reading the canonical examples of the Bildungsroman (Wilhelm Meister, The Red and the Black, and Sentimental Education), as well as the canonical critical accounts (Hegel and Schiller, Lukacs and Bakhtin, Moretti and Redfield).  We will then turn to recent revisionist scholarship: Fraiman on Mill on the Floss, Robbins on Great Expectations, Slaughter on Nervous Conditions, and Esty on Story of an African Farm. In the final third of the course, students will present Bildungsromane of their own choosing and offer their own critical accounts. Any graduate student interested in the novel, of any language or period, is welcome in this course.