The good education. Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beavoir

Abstract

The following reflections on the meanderings of the literary genre that we call Bildungsroman on the basis of Goethe’s work begin with a discussion of possible translations of this label. In my opinion, the current label of “apprenticeship novel” comes from its French formulation, since as in many other concepts of German or Russian culture, France has always been the intermediary. To tell the truth, since it is the teaching process that is emphasized in the adventures of the character Wilhelm Meister, one could think that the most accurate Spanish translation could be that of “novela de educación” or “novela de formación”. On the other hand, the fact that the hero of this genre has always been a male leads one to wonder what the female stratagem might have been to overcome this gender obstacle (this time sexual). To exemplify this “trick of the weak” I use here an early novel by Virginia Woolf (The Voyage Out) and the second volume of Simone de Beauvoir’s autobiography entitled The Prime of Life.