Principle and Propensity : Experience and Religion in the Nineteenth-Century British and American Bildungsroman

University of South Carolina Press

Principle and PropensityExperience and Religion in the Nineteenth-Century British and American Bildungsroman\nAuthor(s): Kelsey L. Bennett\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of South Carolina Press, United States\nImprint: University of South Carolina Press\nISBN-13: 9781611173642, 978-1611173642\nSynopsis\nScholars have traditionally relied upon the assumption that the nineteenth-century bildungsroman in the Goethean tradition is an intrinsically secular genre exclusive to Europe, incompatible with the literature of a democratically based culture. By combining intellectual history with genre criticism, Principle and Propensity provides a critical reassessment of the bildungsroman, beginning with its largely overlooked theological premises: bildung as formation of the self in the image of God. Kelsey L. Bennett examines the dynamic differences, tensions, and possibilities that arise as interest in spiritual growth, or self-formation, collides with the democratic and quasi-democ.