Middlesex as a Bildungsroman: Cal/lie and the Problem of Identity

Abstract

This paper analyses the novel Middlesex (2002) by Jeffrey Eugenides from the point of view of the Bildungsroman, considering moral, psychological, spiritual and social development and growth of the hero/ine from youth to maturity, whose desires and aspirations are in conflict with his/her environment and social order in the community. Regarding the Bildungsroman as a bond between (auto)biography and picaresque novel, Middlesex can also be considered as a Bildungsroman because of its specific narrative and the wanderings of the main protagonist from Detroit and San Francisco to Berlin. What makes Middlesex different from the classical Bildungsroman? During the process of development, the main heroine Calliope undergoes a unique change from a girl to a man, Cal, due to the impact of a mutated gene on three generations of an immigrant Greek family. Middlesex is a story about intersex where the protagonist, searching for her/his identity faces gender problem primarily within her/himself, and then with the community. The analysis of the inner life of the hero/ine and the struggle for his life mirrors the issues of the identity in the 21 century regarding the genre of the Bildungsroman.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n9p259