Employing the Bildungsroman as a medium for the transition to adulthhood: the case of “The eight mountains”

Abstract

Building on an exploration of the formative potential of the autobiographical method, this essay undertakes a critical examination of the Bildungsroman tradition, framed through the defining features of the genre and their resonance within the conceptual discourse on emerging adulthood, the nuanced and transitional phase leading towards full maturity. The analysis is informed by a workshop conducted with students enrolled in the Adult Education class at the University of XXX, in which autobiographical narratives and works of the Bildungsroman tradition were employed as lenses through which to interrogate participants’ pathways of personal development and identity construction. Within this context, Paolo Cognetti’s The Eight Mountains was adopted as a contemporary exemplar of the Bildungsroman, selected for its pivotal passages that engage with themes of intergenerational relationships, the nature of friendship, the formative significance of travel, and the conceptual depth of the notion of “project”.