Bildungsroman experience of secondary worlds of Neil Gaimanand Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy literature

This thesis has demonstrated the formation the Bildungsroman genre has gone through as a result of its convergence with the fantasy literature, which allowed the genre to portray the coming-of-age stories in a supernatural setting. Traditionally, Bildungsroman has been observed as a realistic genre however, with the contemporary popularity of the fantasy genre and as a means to comment on and depict "Bildung" in the contemporary world, this thesis has underlined Bildungsroman has resorted to fantasy. Looking at the examples of their convergence, the thesis has observed a generic mixture of the two genres, naming it "Fantastic Bildungsroman." To this end, the thesis has studied both Bildungsroman and fantasy genres in-depth, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones have been chosen as the primary texts that portray the convergence of both genres. With the help of these novels many Bildungsroman elements have been observed in fantasy texts and these elements have been analysed to point out how the supernatural contributes to the coming-of-age stories. Fantasy, as the literature of subversion, is explained as a deconstructive force and through the supernatural elements, the expectations from the Bildungsroman genre have been observed to shift with its convergence to fantasy. It has been reflected that both Gaiman and Jones have used fantasy to comment upon coming-of-age stories and subvert the norms of Bildungsroman to broaden the boundaries of the genre so that it can portray a wider range of development stories. It has been stated that "Bildung" also occurs in the "Secondary Worlds" of fantasy and the supernatural elements can provide highly developing experiences.