The Victorian künstlerroman

This study includes the main characteristics of the Victorian literature in general and the Victorian Künstlerroman in particular. The fundamental aim is to make a comparison between the male and female Künstlerromane in relation to the gender differences.In the first chapter, the main genres of the Victorian age, the issues about the gender distinctions in the nineteenth century fiction, the basic traits of the Künstlerroman, and the other sub-categories of the Victorian Bildungsroman are mentioned. More specifically, the definition of the Künstlerroman, and the main male and female examples are analyzed.In the second chapter, Charles Dickens? David Copperfield and Elizabeth Barrett Browning?s Aurora Leigh are introduced as the male and female epitomes of the Victorian Künstlerroman. In this comparative analysis, the main similarities and differences between these two texts are introduced in relation to the gender matters and the condition of the male and female artists in society. In this context, the process of the self-construction of the protagonists as individuals and artists are compared in the frame of their experiences. The conclusion of this comparative analysis is that both David Copperfield and Aurora Leigh include the main characteristics of the Künstlerroman, however, they differ in some thematic concerns in relation to the gender differences.