Genre (feminism) and genre (Bildungsroman) in The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue monk Kidd

• Grant number: 10/15203-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2010
• End date: October 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Modern Foreign Literatures
• Principal Investigator: Cláudia Maria Ceneviva Nigro
• Grantee: Juliane Camila Chatagnier
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências, Letras e Ciências Exatas (IBILCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de São José do Rio Preto. São José do Rio Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze the contemporary novel The Secret Life of Bees (2002), by Sue Monk Kidd, framing it in the genre known as Bildungsroman, or apprenticeship novel. For this, it will be necessary to discuss, firstly, how the protagonist (Lily) education happens, and, also, which is the protagonist trajectory throughout the novel, whereas identity construction is straightly related to the journey that the teenager takes in search of herself. In order to analyze the way Lily’s identity is built, it is necessary to study genre, considering that the author adds in the novel a women community, where these have different life stories and can also contribute to the protagonist identity construction. It is appropriate to emphasize that we do not intend to analyze the identity construction known as "identical", but the identity from difference, that is, among alterities. Finally, all these exposed contents will be based on "modernity" (mentioned bellow), considering that it is a contemporary novel which shows problems faced by women during the second half of the twentieth century. As a theoretical display books, such as Hall (2006,) Giddens (2002) and Bauman (2001), which are based on studies about identity in "modernity"; works by Pinto (1990) and Maas (2000), which contribute to the comprehension on what a Bildungsroman and traditional and women Bildungsroman are; Butler's (1990) theory, which helps on genre elaboration in the novel, and other theories that can be necessary, will be used. (AU)