<p>In this essay the main aim is to consider Philip Pullman’s trilogy <em>His Dark Materials</em> with its female protagonist as a Bildungsroman. The principal source of the study is Jerome Buckley’s <em>Season of Youth – The Bildungsroman from Dickens to Golding. </em>Buckely’s presentation of the significant characteristics of the Bildungsroman will be applied to Philip Pullman’s <em>His Dark Materials </em>in order to explore if these characteristics are present, modified or not, in the trilogy.<em> </em></p><p><em> </em></p><p>The second aim is to investigate how <em>His Dark Materials </em>relates to the patterns of the hero’s journey. In order to approach this question, Joseph Campbell’s work <em>The Hero with a Thousand Faces </em>is applied as a main source. </p><p> </p><p>Since most material concerning both the Bildungsroman and the hero’s journey are from a male point of view and concern males, the female perspective will be represented by Susan Fraiman and Linda Wagner who both write about females and the bildung narrative.</p><p> </p><p>In the section called <em>The Story of Lyra</em>, the trilogy is summarized briefly in order to give the reader a chance to understand what the trilogy is about. In the conclusion, Lyra’s development and (hero)-journey are discussed. </p><p> </p><p>The final claim of the study is that <em>His Dark Materials</em> can be considered a Bildungsroman and the patterns of the hero journey are found in the story about Lyra, but with some differences from her male counterparts.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:hig-4396 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Nordlén, Lisa |
| Publisher | University of Gävle, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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