A Künstlerroman is a novel about an artist’s growth and development, from youth to maturity. The term is German for “artist’s novel”.
Features
A Künstlerroman is a type of Bildungsroman, or coming-of-age novel.
It can focus on the development of a painter, musician, or poet.
It can also include studies of artists in middle or old age.
It can sometimes be about historical figures.
Examples
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: (1916) by James Joyce
Hunger: (1890) by Knut Hamsun
Look Homeward, Angel: (1929) by Thomas Wolfe
Doktor Faustus: (1947) by Thomas Mann
L’Oeuvre: (1886) by Zola
An Imaginary Life: (1978) by David Malouf
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