The Construction of Bildungsroman Tradition and Character Formation in Selected Novels of Charles Okoth

Bildungsroman is a universal technique that traces the development of characters from childhood to maturity. This article examines the bildungsroman pattern of character formation in the African literary tradition. It explores unique features in bildungsroman that are appropriated in examining character development. We investigate how the writer utilises the journey motif in tracing the development of characters from childhood to maturity. Although the bildungsroman focuses on the teleological development of character growth from infancy to adulthood, this paper focuses on characters' coming-of-age. This study applies structuralist and psychosocial theory, which highlight the development of characters in the bildungsroman tradition. Erik Erikson's Psychosocial theory is used to analyse the growth of protagonists in the psychosocial stages. Structuralist theory helps to explore character development and validate how Okoth’s novels conform to and also deviate from the bildungsroman tradition. The analysis focuses on Charles Okoth’s selected novels: High Tide at Shibale (2015), Shiundu and the Drug Syndicate (2018), and Not Now, Jimmy Boy (2019). The findings of this study reflect that Okoth adapts the bildungsroman to trace the development of both male and female characters. The focus on coming-of-age novels contributes to knowledge by challenging the bildungsroman's original focus on adult literature. The growth of characters is woven around contemporary challenges in African society, such as drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, deteriorating morality, and human trafficking. The development amidst social reality ignites their formation through conscientisation, apprenticeship, identity formation, and growth. Okoth’s novels focus on the development of male and female characters that reflect the modification of the bildungsroman. The study offers recommendations for interrogating the double bildungsroman by focusing on the dual development of male and female characters simultaneously in the same text