A novel tracing a character's moral, psychological, and social development from youth to maturity, the formal term for a coming-of-age novel.
Bildungsroman is the German literary term for a novel of formation: a narrative that follows a protagonist from youth through a series of formative experiences (education, relationships, disillusionment, self-discovery) to arrive at a mature understanding of themselves and their place in the world. It's the formal, novel-length version of the coming-of-age pattern, with a specific emphasis on the protagonist's intellectual and moral growth.
Knowing this term helps you in two ways: it gives you a precise vocabulary for discussing your novel's structure, and it connects your work to one of the most celebrated traditions in literary fiction. Agents and editors recognize the term, and using it accurately signals that you understand your novel's literary lineage.
Pip's journey from blacksmith's apprentice to gentleman and back, discovering that character matters more than class.
Stephen Dedalus's intellectual and artistic awakening, the bildungsroman as modernist experiment.
A dark bildungsroman: Richard Papen's education at an elite college becomes his moral corruption.
Map your protagonist's bildungsroman in three sentences: What do they believe about the world at the start? What experience shatters that belief? What new understanding do they arrive at? If these three points are clear, your novel has a bildungsroman spine.